“What begins simply may end immense” appears in the “In the World of Men” chapter of the Zhuangzi. Speaking through Confucius to Ye Gongzi Gao, the passage warns that affairs between people may look straightforward at first, yet grow through retelling, emotion and competing interests until their conclusion carries serious pressure. “Simple” does not mean easy, and “immense” refers not only to size but to accumulating consequences. The line need not teach us to refuse commitments. Its restrained use today is to state boundaries and record changes while a matter is still small, rather than pretending it remains the same after complexity has gathered.
https://ctext.org/zhuangzi/man-in-the-world-associated-with
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