Xunzi Quotes

If the quickness of the mind and the fluency of the tongue are too punctilious and sharp, moderate them in your activity and rest.

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

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

Man's nature is evil; goodness is the result of conscious activity.

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.

Pride and excess bring disaster for man.

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

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

Human nature is such that people are born with a love of profit If they follow these inclinations, they will struggle and snatch from each other, and inclinations to defer or yield will die.

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

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

I once tried thinking for an entire day, but I found it less valuable than one moment of study.

Sacrifices are concerned with the feelings of devotion and longing.

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

The drum is surely the lord of music, is it not?

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

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.

Sacrifice is a state of mind in which our thoughts turn with longing [toward Heaven, the Ancestors], It is the supreme expression of loyalty, love, and respect.

When you concentrate on agriculture and industry and are frugal in expenditures, Heaven cannot impoverish your state.

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.

The noble person uses things; the lesser man is used by things.

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

They are done merely for ornament. ... the common people regard them as supernatural.

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.

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.

Whether the gentleman is capable or not, he is loved all the same; conversely the petty man is loathed all the same.

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

The nature of man is evil; what is good in him is artificial.

Human nature is what Heaven supplies.