Words matter. These are the best Xun Kuang Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Sacrifices are concerned with the feelings of devotion and longing.
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.
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?
When you locate good in yourself, approve of it with determination. When you locate evil in yourself, despise it as something detestable.
If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction.
Pride and excess bring disaster for man.
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.
When you concentrate on agriculture and industry and are frugal in expenditures, Heaven cannot impoverish your state.
Those whose character is mean and vicious will rouse others to animosity against them.
In order to properly understand the big picture, everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed with one small section of truth.
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.
A person is born with a liking for profit.
I once tried thinking for an entire day, but I found it less valuable than one moment of study.
If the blood humor is too strong and robust, calm it with balance and harmony.
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.
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.
I say that human nature is the original beginning and the raw material, and deliberate effort is what makes it patterned, ordered, and exalted.
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 coming of honor or disgrace must be a reflection of one’s inner power.
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.
Mencius said that human nature is good. I disagree with that.
Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.
Human nature and deliberate effort must unite, and then the reputation of the sage and the work of unifying all under Heaven are thereupon brought to completion.
Music is a fantastic peacekeeper of the world, it is integral to harmony, and it is a required fundamental of human emotion.
The rigid cause themselves to be broken; the pliable cause themselves to be bound.
Human nature refers to what is in people but which they cannot study or work at achieving.
Human nature is what Heaven supplies.
When people lack teachers, their tendencies are not corrected; when they do not have ritual and moral principles, then their lawlessness is not controlled.
A person is born with desires of the eyes and ears, and a liking for beautiful sights and sounds. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to immorality and lack of restriction, and any ritual principles and propriety will be abandoned.
If knowledge and foresight are too penetrating and deep, unify them with ease and sincerity.
