The mind itself is principle.
心即理也。
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.
To know and not to act is not yet to know.
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.