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

Xunzi

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Xunzi
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If there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement.
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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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I once tried thinking for an entire day, but I found it less valuable than one moment of study.
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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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If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction.
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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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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.
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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.
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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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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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You look upon the seasons with expectation and await them: wy not seize the seasonal opportunities and exploit them?
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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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The drum is surely the lord of music, is it not?
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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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Man's nature is evil goodness is the result of conscious activity.
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The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere.
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Pride and excess bring disaster for man.
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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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