The truth we tell people is that promises that are easy to get always lack credit. This sentence is from Chapter 63 of the Tao Te Ching, and the original excerpt is as follows:

If things are difficult in the world, they must be done easily; Great things in the world must be done in detail. Therefore, the sage is not great after all, so he can become great. A husband who makes light promises will be faithless, and how easy it is will be more difficult. It is difficult to be a saint, so there is no difficulty in the end.

Translation:

Difficult things in the world must start from simple places; The great events in the world must start with tiny parts. Therefore, a sage with "Tao" never covets great contributions, so he can achieve great things. Those who make promises easily will rarely be able to keep them, and those who take things too easily will suffer a lot of difficulties. Therefore, a wise sage always values difficulties, so there is no difficulty at last.

Extended information:

Main idea

1. Promises that are easy to get always lack credit. If you take things too simply, there must be many difficulties in doing them.

in "keeping promises lightly, but keeping promises rarely, how easy it is, how difficult it is", Lao Tzu put forward a standard to measure right and wrong. When it doesn't involve specific circumstances, Lao Tzu thinks that the credit promised easily must be insufficient, and it is too easy to describe things, which will inevitably be difficult in actual implementation.

2. If a country can't win the trust of the people, it will collapse.

"People can't stand without trust", which means that credit is very important to people. If the rulers have credit, the citizens will have confidence; When citizens have confidence, they will have trust; If people have confidence and trust, governance will get twice the result with half the effort.