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

Xunzi

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Xunzi
Nature
Human
Humans
Intentional
Caused
Goodness
Activity
Evil

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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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There are successful scholars, public-spirited scholars, upright scholars, cautious scholars, and those who are merely petty men.
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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.
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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.
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Not having heard something is not as good as having heard it having heard it is not as good as having seen it having seen it is not as good as knowing it knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice.
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You look upon the seasons with expectation and await them: wy not seize the seasonal opportunities and exploit them?
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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.
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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 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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If knowledge and foresight are too penetrating and deep, unify them with ease and sincerity.
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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.
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When you concentrate on agriculture and industry and are frugal in expenditures, Heaven cannot impoverish your state.
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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.
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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.
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If there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement.
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The rigid cause themselves to be broken the pliable cause themselves to be bound.
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They are done merely for ornament. ... the common people regard them as supernatural.
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Human nature is what Heaven supplies.
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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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