Officials are not perpetually noble, and commoners are not perpetually base.
官無常貴、而民無終賤。
Philosophers
Mozi
Founder of Mohism in Warring States China (c. 470-390 BCE). Impartial care (jian ai) and non-aggression (fei gong) made Mohism the chief rival of Confucianism. Mohists also pioneered Chinese logic and engineering.
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Mozi's Other Quotes
Care for one another impartially; benefit one another in mutual exchange.
To do what is right is not to avoid blame and seek praise.
If killing one man is unrighteous and a capital offence, then by the same logic killing ten is tenfold unrighteous and ten capital offences; killing a hundred is a hundredfold unrighteous and a hundred capital offences.
Related Quotes
Good sense is the most evenly distributed thing in the world.
-- René Descartes
The legal subordination of one sex to another is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement.
-- John Stuart Mill
Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
-- John Locke