--- Shang Yang (c. 390 - 338 BCE), chief adviser to the prince of Qin, author of the reforms that led Qin to conquer the rest of China.
Shanqiunshu 20, quoted in Mark Elvin, “Was There a Transcendental Breakthrough in China?,” in S. N. Eisenstadt, ed., The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations (Albany 1980), p. 352, quoted in K. Armstrong, The Great Transformation (New York 2006), p. 335
As given in Armstrong: "A state that uses good people to govern the wicked will be plagued by disorder and destroyed. A state that uses the wicked to govern the good always enjoys order and becomes strong."
