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" If knowledge and foresight are too penetrating and deep, unify them with ease and sincerity. "

Related Quotes:

" The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere. "

" When people lack teachers, their tendencies are not corrected; when they do not have ritual and moral principles, then their lawlessness is not controlled. "

" In order to properly understand the big picture, everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed with one small section of truth. "

" Now it is human nature to want to eat to ones fill when hungry, to want to warm up when cold, to want to rest when tired. These all are a part of people's emotional nature. "

" There are successful scholars, public-spirited scholars, upright scholars, cautious scholars, and those who are merely petty men. "

" If the gentleman has ability, he is magnanimous, generous, tolerant, and straightforward, through which he opens the way to instruct others. "

Straightforward

" In antiquity the sage kings recognized that men's nature is bad and that their tendencies were not being corrected and their lawlessness controlled. "

" 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. "

" The rigid cause themselves to be broken; the pliable cause themselves to be bound. "

" I say that human nature is the original beginning and the raw material, and deliberate effort is what makes it patterned, ordered, and exalted. "

" The coming of honor or disgrace must be a reflection of one's inner power. "

" If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction. "

" Sacrifices are concerned with the feelings of devotion and longing. "

" Those whose character is mean and vicious will rouse others to animosity against them. "

" If there were no human nature, then there would be nothing for deliberate effort to be applied to. If there were no deliberate effort, then human nature would not be able to beautify itself. "

" Human nature is what Heaven supplies. "

" Quarreling over food and drink, having neither scruples nor shame, not knowing right from wrong, not trying to avoid death or injury, not fearful of greater strength or of greater numbers, greedily aware only of food and drink - such is the bravery of the dog and boar. "

" A person is born with a liking for profit. "

" A person is born with feelings of envy and hate. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to violence and crime, and any sense of loyalty and good faith will be abandoned. "

" Human nature refers to what is in people but which they cannot study or work at achieving. "

" Pride and excess bring disaster for man. "

" Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity. "

" Human nature and deliberate effort must unite, and then the reputation of the sage and the work of unifying all under Heaven are thereupon brought to completion. "

" 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. "

" Music is a fantastic peacekeeper of the world, it is integral to harmony, and it is a required fundamental of human emotion. "

" If what the heart approves conforms to proper patterns, then even if one's desires are many, what harm would they be to good order? "

" I once tried standing up on my toes to see far out in the distance, but I found that I could see much farther by climbing to a high place. "

" 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. "

" Mencius said that human nature is good. I disagree with that. "

" 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. "