Laozi
善為士者，不武；善戰者，不怒； 善勝敵者，不與；善用人者，為之下。 是謂不爭之德，是謂用人之力， 是謂配天古之極。
James Legge
He who in (Tao’s) wars has skill Assumes no martial port; He who fights with most good will To rage makes no resort. He who vanquishes yet still Keeps from his foes apart; He whose hests men most fulfil Yet humbly plies his art.
Thus we say, ‘He ne’er contends, And therein is his might.’ Thus we say, ‘Men’s wills he bends, That they with him unite.’ Thus we say, ‘Like Heaven’s his ends, No sage of old more bright.’
Victor H. Mair
A good warrior is not bellicose, A good fighter does not anger, A good conqueror does not contest his enemy, One who is good at using others puts himself below them. This is called “integrity without competition,” This is called “using others,” This is called “parity with heaven,” - the pinnacle of the ancients.
C. Spurgeon Medhurst
The most skillful warriors are not war-like; the best fighters are not wrathful; the mightiest conquerors never strive; the greatest masters are ever lowly.
This is the glory of non-strife; and the might of utilization; these equal heaven, they were the goal of the ancients.
Desire for self-assertion is the controlling motive on the material plane—dogma contends with dogma, creed with creed, Church with Church. On the spiritual plane the sense of separateness which produces contention disappears and as the material is controlled by the moral, the physical by the spiritual, it follows that, centuries of contrary conceptions notwithstanding, the greatest might is that which does not contend. An anonymous writer has well said:
“Force and evil are no remedy. Use those means, and we shall find we only move the trouble from one quarter into another, and the difficulty we apparently get out of in one direction has come home to roost in another, stronger than ever. Goodness, and Goodness only, will destroy evil, and make our lives in this world—and in the next—smooth and comfortable.” [**]
^115:* “Absolute Justice”—An anonymous pamphlet published in London in 1901.
Ursula K. Le Guin
The best captain doesn’t rush in front. The fiercest fighter doesn’t bluster. The big winner isn’t competing. The best boss takes a low footing. This is the power of noncompetition. This is the right use of ability. To follow heaven’s lead has always been the best way.