"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."
"Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do."
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Source: Confucius, Mencius, Ssǔ shu, Wu king, Shu Ching (1861). “The Chinese Classics”, p.197
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