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

Xunzi

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Xunzi
Goodness
Activity
Evil
Nature
Human
Humans
Intentional
Caused

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When people lack teachers, their tendencies are not corrected when they do not have ritual and moral principles, then their lawlessness is not controlled.
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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.
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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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If knowledge and foresight are too penetrating and deep, unify them with ease and sincerity.
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Those whose character is mean and vicious will rouse others to animosity against them.
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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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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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Man's nature is evil goodness is the result of conscious activity.
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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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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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Human nature refers to what is in people but which they cannot study or work at achieving.
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The noble person uses things the lesser man is used by things.
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The drum is surely the lord of music, is it not?
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A person is born with feelings of envy and hate. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to violence and crime, and any sense of loyalty and good faith will be abandoned.
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They are done merely for ornament. ... the common people regard them as supernatural.
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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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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.
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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.
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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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