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.
Xun Zi
3
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.
Xun Zi
4
Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.
Xun Zi
5
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.
Xun Zi
6
Human nature refers to what is in people but which they cannot study or work at achieving.
Xun Zi
7
I once tried thinking for an entire day, but I found it less valuable than one moment of study.
Xun Zi
8
If knowledge and foresight are too penetrating and deep, unify them with ease and sincerity.
Xun Zi
9
If the gentleman has ability, he is magnanimous, generous, tolerant, and straightforward, through which he opens the way to instruct others.
Xun Zi
10
If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction.
Xun Zi
11
If the quickness of the mind and the fluency of the tongue are too punctilious and sharp, moderate them in your activity and rest.
Xun Zi
12
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?
Xun Zi
13
In antiquity the sage kings recognized that men's nature is bad and that their tendencies were not being corrected and their lawlessness controlled.
Xun Zi
14
In order to properly understand the big picture, everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed with one small section of truth.
Xun Zi
15
Mencius said that human nature is good. I disagree with that.
Xun Zi
16
Music is a fantastic peacekeeper of the world, it is integral to harmony, and it is a required fundamental of human emotion.
Xun Zi
17
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.
Xun Zi
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.
Xun Zi
20
Sacrifices are concerned with the feelings of devotion and longing.
Xun Zi
21
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.
Xun Zi
22
The coming of honor or disgrace must be a reflection of one's inner power.
Xun Zi
23
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.
Xun Zi
24
The rigid cause themselves to be broken; the pliable cause themselves to be bound.
Xun Zi
25
There are successful scholars, public-spirited scholars, upright scholars, cautious scholars, and those who are merely petty men.
Xun Zi
26
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.
Xun Zi
27
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.
Xun Zi
28
When people lack teachers, their tendencies are not corrected; when they do not have ritual and moral principles, then their lawlessness is not controlled.
Xun Zi
29
When you concentrate on agriculture and industry and are frugal in expenditures, Heaven cannot impoverish your state.
Xun Zi
