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"Mencius said that human nature is good. I disagree with that."
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"If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable."
"Flowers are the beautiful hairs of the Mother Spring! Don't pluck them!"
"Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies."
"Sometimes, humanity surprises me with all its lack of control over the primordial urges. These innate urges are the biological traits that make us similar to the rest of the animal kingdom. But the modern qualities that make us superior to all the animals are intellect and self-control."
"Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature."
"The Moon always finds an opportunity to turn our attention from the ground beneath our feet to the sky above our head!"
"Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff."
"I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature; and that man will be myself."
Explore more quotes by Xun Zi
"Thus, anybody who follows this nature and gives way its states will be led into quarrels and conflicts, and go against the conventions and rules of society, and will end up a criminal."
"If the quickness of the mind and the fluency of the tongue are too punctilious and sharp, moderate them in your activity and rest."
"The petty man is eager to make boasts, yet desires that others should believe in him. He enthusiastically engages in deception, yet wants others to have affection for him. He conducts himself like an animal, yet wants others to think well of him."
"When you locate good in yourself, approve of it with determination. When you locate evil in yourself, despise it as something detestable."
"Since the nature of people is bad, to become corrected they must be taught by teachers and to be orderly they must acquire ritual and moral principles."
"Therefore, a person should first be changed by a teacher's instructions, and guided by principles of ritual. Only then can he observe the rules of courtesy and humility, obey the conventions and rules of society, and achieve order."
"In antiquity the sage kings recognized that men's nature is bad and that their tendencies were not being corrected and their lawlessness controlled."
"When a man sees something desirable, he must reflect on the fact that with time it could come to involve what is detestable. When he sees something that is beneficial, he should reflect that sooner or later it, too, could come to involve harm."
"In order to properly understand the big picture, everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed with one small section of truth."
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