When torrential water tosses boulders, it is because of its momentum. When the strike of a hawk breaks the body of its prey, it is because of timing.
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Sun Tzu
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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Xunzi
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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Xunzi
You look upon the seasons with expectation and await them: why not seize the seasonal opportunities and exploit them?
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Xunzi
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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Xunzi
If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction.
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Xunzi
Whether the gentleman is capable or not, he is loved all the same; conversely the petty man is loathed all the same.
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Xunzi
There are successful scholars, public-spirited scholars, upright scholars, cautious scholars, and those who are merely petty men.
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Xunzi
I once tried thinking for an entire day, but I found it less valuable than one moment of study.
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Xunzi
Your preciousness lies in your essence; it cannot be lost by anything that happens.
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Zhuangzi
Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words.
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Zhuangzi
When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is known as ignorance.
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Zhuangzi
We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
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Zhuangzi
The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.
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Zhuangzi
The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.
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Zhuangzi
Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.
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Zhuangzi