The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere.
XUNZIIf the quickness of the mind and the fluency of the tongue are too punctilious and sharp, moderate them in your activity and rest.
More Xunzi Quotes
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The drum is surely the lord of music, is it not?
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Music is a fantastic peacekeeper of the world, it is integral to harmony, and it is a required fundamental of human emotion.
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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?
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Sacrifices are concerned with the feelings of devotion and longing.
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In antiquity the sage kings recognized that men’s nature is bad and that their tendencies were not being corrected and their lawlessness controlled.
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Human nature refers to what is in people but which they cannot study or work at achieving.
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They are done merely for ornament. … the common people regard them as supernatural.
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If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction.
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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.
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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.
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The rigid cause themselves to be broken; the pliable cause themselves to be bound.
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One must remember equality, yet also be aware of difference, for if the people are allowed to act as it pleases them without coming up against displeasure, if one gives rein to its desires without setting [any] limit, it becomes confused and can no longer take delight in anything.
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I once tried thinking for an entire day, but I found it less valuable than one moment of study.
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If you wish to see the thousand years, look at today; if you wish to understand the millionfold, then look at the one or the two.
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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.
XUNZI






