A light promise will lead to a lack of faith from the Tao Te Ching.

"A light promise will lead to little faith" comes from Chapter 63 of "Laozi": Doing nothing, doing nothing, and tasteless. No matter how big or small, report grievances with virtue. The picture is more difficult than the easy, and the details are greater than the details; the difficult things in the world must be done in the easy; the great things in the world must be done in the details. Therefore, the saint is not great in the end, so he can become great. If a husband makes a promise lightly, he will be distrustful; if it is easy, it will be difficult. Therefore, it is still difficult for the sage, so it will not be difficult in the end.

Translation: To make a difference with an attitude of inaction, to deal with things in a non-provoking way, and to regard indifference as tasteful. The big is born from the small, and the more is born from the less. To deal with problems, we must start from the easy place, and to achieve great goals, we must start from the subtle place. The difficult things in the world must start from simple places; the great things in the world must start from small parts. Therefore, saints with "Tao" never covet great contributions, so they can achieve great things.

Those who make promises easily are bound to rarely be able to fulfill them. Those who take things too easy are bound to encounter many difficulties. Therefore, a wise sage always attaches great importance to difficulties, so there are no difficulties in the end.

Introduction to the work

"A light promise will lead to a lack of faith" comes from Chapter 63 of Laozi's "Tao Te Ching". The Tao Te Ching, also known as the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, Five Thousand Words, and Lao Tzu's Five Thousand Essays, is a work written by the pre-Qin scholars in ancient China before they split up.

It was highly regarded by scholars at that time and is said to have been written by Laozi (Li Er, a native of Luyi, Henan) during the Spring and Autumn Period. It is an important source of Taoist philosophical thought. The Tao Te Ching is divided into two parts. The original text is the first part "De Jing" and the second part "Tao Jing". They are not divided into chapters. Later they were changed to "Tao Jing". Chapter 37 comes first, and after chapter 38 it is "De Jing" and divided into chapters. For 81 chapters. It is the first complete philosophical work in Chinese history. The Tao Te Ching was regarded as a Taoist classic from 206 BC to 200 AD.

The above content refers to Baidu Encyclopedia-"Tao Te Ching"