When people lack teachers, their tendencies are not corrected; when they do not have ritual and moral principles, then their lawlessness is not controlled.
XunziRead
If what the heart approves conforms to proper patterns, then even if one's desires are many, what harm would they be to good order?
Interpretation
What this quote means
When our desires align with righteousness and order, they can coexist positively.
This quote from Xunzi suggests that if our desires are grounded in virtue and align with a moral framework, the multitude of desires we may have will not disturb the harmony of our lives. It emphasizes the importance of aligning one's heart and intentions with good principles, allowing for a rich yet orderly life.
Themes
DesiresOrderHeartPatternsVirtue
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about living a balanced life, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of moral foundations in guiding personal desires.
More from Xunzi
All quotes βWhen 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.
XunziRead
A person is born with feelings of envy and hate. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to violence and crime, and any sense of loyalty and good faith will be abandoned.
XunziRead
If the gentleman has ability, he is magnanimous, generous, tolerant, and straightforward, through which he opens the way to instruct others.
XunziRead
In antiquity the sage kings recognized that men's nature is bad and that their tendencies were not being corrected and their lawlessness controlled.
XunziRead
Human nature is such that people are born with a love of profit If they follow these inclinations, they will struggle and snatch from each other, and inclinations to defer or yield will die.
XunziRead
Similar quotes
You don't 'have' a life, you 'are' life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.
Eckhart TolleRead
The joke of it all is that you are looking from your true nature right now without knowing it. If you would stop being fascinated with the contents of your mind, you would experience what I am saying. Feel your way into what I am saying rather than thinking about it. Only a self-concept looks and longs for God. Drop your self-concept and there is only God meeting God. Enlightenment is the restoration of cosmic humor.
AdyashantiRead
I'm in a period of growth and expansion. I'm taking long, hard looks at the world and what's happening in it, analyzing and thinking. I'm trying to become acquainted with the universe - with the part of it I occupy - and trying to settle, for myself, what my relationship with it is.
Gene RoddenberryRead
Pay no heed to those who tell you that they have relinquished place and power of their own accord, and from their love of quiet. For almost always they have been brought to this retirement by their insufficiency and against their will.
Francesco GuicciardiniRead
The more afraid we are of the shadow of racism, the more conscious we might become of our own unsuspected biases.
Bret StephensRead
Both our present science and our present technology are so tinctured with orthodox Christian arrogance toward nature that no solution for our ecologic crisis can be expected from them alone. Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and refeel our nature and destiny.
Lynn Townsend White, Jr.Read