“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.”

You look upon the seasons with expectation and await them: wy not seize the seasonal opportunities and exploit them?

Sacrifices are concerned with the feelings of devotion and longing.

Pride and excess bring disaster for man.

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

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

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

Misery is evil; quarreling, a misfortune. There is only one possibility of avoiding both: a clear division of society. [Otherwise] the strong tyrannize the weak, the intelligent frighten the stupid, the inferior resist the superior, and the young mock the old.

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.

Thus, that one can find no place to walk through the breadth of the earth is not because the earth is not tranquil but because the danger to every step of the traveler lies generally with words.

Men of all social stations live together: they are equal in their desires, yet vary in their methods; they are equal in their passions, yet different in their intelligence; that is their nature-given vitality.

If there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement.

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

If the blood humor is too strong and robust, calm it with balance and harmony.

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.

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.

Being is desirable because it is identical with Beauty, and Beauty is loved because it is Being.

Children are the most desirable opponents at scrabble as they are both easy to beat and fun to cheat.

We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us.

The activities of drawing, eating and drinking, all involve assimilations by the self of desirable elements from the world, a transfer of goodness from without to within.

Let’s show people how desirable it is to step it up and climb towards heaven.

They have to be desirable, well-designed and work well.

It’s really seeing student involvement … as a variety of opportunities that are appropriate for each given student and responsive to their individual needs and their desires for their educational experience.

I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe.