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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.
Xunzi
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Xunzi
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More quotes by Xunzi
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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Man's nature is evil goodness is the result of conscious activity.
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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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There are successful scholars, public-spirited scholars, upright scholars, cautious scholars, and those who are merely petty men.
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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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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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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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If the gentleman has ability, he is magnanimous, generous, tolerant, and straightforward, through which he opens the way to instruct others.
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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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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 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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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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If the quickness of the mind and the fluency of the tongue are too punctilious and sharp, moderate them in your activity and rest.
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The nature of man is evil what is good in him is artificial.
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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 rigid cause themselves to be broken the pliable cause themselves to be bound.
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Sacrifices are concerned with the feelings of devotion and longing.
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The coming of honor or disgrace must be a reflection of one's inner power.
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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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