He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire – Laozi, Chinese philosopher (604 BC – c. 531 BC)

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

One who loves and cares for the world like their own body can be trusted with great responsibility

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Người yêu thương thế giới như thể mình có thể được giao phó nhiệm vụ lớn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: loving the world as one's own body
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English
Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire – Laozi, Chinese philosopher (604 BC – c. 531 BC)” mean?

One who loves and cares for the world like their own body can be trusted with great responsibility Literally: loving the world as one's own body

Is “He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire – Laozi, Chinese philosopher (604 BC – c. 531 BC)” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.