"When Heaven is about to confer a great office on a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil ; it exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty ; it confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies."
"Evil exists to glorify the good. Evil is negative good. It is a relative term. Evil can be transmuted into good. What is evil to one at one time, becomes good at another time to somebody else."
31 likes
Source: Mencius, James Legge (1875). “The Life and Works of Mencius: With Essays and Notes”, p.316
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Mencius
"Friendship is one mind in two bodies."
"The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart."
"Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence"
"If you know the point of balance, You can settle the details. If you can settle the details, You can stop running around. Your mind will become calm. If your mind becomes calm, You can think in front of a tiger. If you can think in front of a tiger, You will surely succeed."
"The disease of men is that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others."