If you carve without ceasing, even metal and stone can be engraved.
鍥而不舎、金石可鏤。
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Philosophers
Xunzi
A Confucian scholar born in the state of Zhao during the late Warring States period, 3rd century BCE. Xunzi directly opposed Mencius's doctrine of innate human goodness, declaring that 'human nature is evil; its goodness is the result of deliberate effort.' He argued that only acquired self-cultivation — through ritual practice and ceaseless study — can elevate human beings into moral agents. Through his pupils Han Fei and Li Si he exerted a decisive influence on Legalist thought, making him both the greatest heretic and the greatest innovator in the history of Confucianism.
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Xunzi's Other Quotes
Related Quotes
Endure and renounce.
-- Epictetus
Fire tests gold; adversity tests strong people.
-- Seneca
If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labour passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.
-- Gaius Musonius Rufus
Bodily pain does not last without limit; intense pain is brief in duration.
-- Epicurus
Learning must never cease.
-- Xunzi
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche