Mencius said that human nature is good. I disagree with that.
XUNZINow 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.
More Xunzi Quotes
-
-
If the gentleman has ability, he is magnanimous, generous, tolerant, and straightforward, through which he opens the way to instruct others.
XUNZI -
Music is a fantastic peacekeeper of the world, it is integral to harmony, and it is a required fundamental of human emotion.
XUNZI -
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.
XUNZI -
They are done merely for ornament. … the common people regard them as supernatural.
XUNZI -
The rigid cause themselves to be broken; the pliable cause themselves to be bound.
XUNZI -
The drum is surely the lord of music, is it not?
XUNZI -
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.
XUNZI -
The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere.
XUNZI -
When you concentrate on agriculture and industry and are frugal in expenditures, Heaven cannot impoverish your state.
XUNZI -
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.
XUNZI -
The nature of man is evil; what is good in him is artificial.
XUNZI -
If knowledge and foresight are too penetrating and deep, unify them with ease and sincerity.
XUNZI -
There are successful scholars, public-spirited scholars, upright scholars, cautious scholars, and those who are merely petty men.
XUNZI -
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 -
You look upon the seasons with expectation and await them: wy not seize the seasonal opportunities and exploit them?
XUNZI