To know and not to act is not yet to know.
知而不行、只是未知。
Philosophers
Wang Yangming
Born in 1472 in Zhejiang during China's Ming dynasty, Wang Yangming was a Confucian scholar and military strategist. He overturned the orthodox Neo-Confucian doctrine of 'first knowledge, then action' with his thesis that knowledge and action are inseparable — the 'unity of knowing and acting.' His school of thought, Yangming studies, influenced Japanese reformers from Oshio Heihachiro to Yoshida Shoin.
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Wang Yangming's Other Quotes
Knowing is the beginning of action; action is the completion of knowing.
The mind itself is principle.
It is easy to vanquish bandits in the mountains; it is hard to vanquish the bandits in one's heart.
This mind is luminous — what more is there to say?
The way of the sage is sufficient in my own nature. It was an error to seek principle in external things.
Related Quotes
It is hard to retain what you learn unless you practice it.
-- Seneca
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
-- Marcus Aurelius
The beginning is half of the whole.
-- Aristotle
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
-- Laozi
Think by becoming the thing; act by becoming the thing.
-- Kitarō Nishida
Knowing is the beginning of action; action is the completion of knowing.
-- Wang Yangming