"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."
"Only those who develop their minds and spirits to the utmost can serve Heaven and fulfill their own destinies."
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Source: Mencius, James Legge (1875). “The Life and Works of Mencius: With Essays and Notes”, p.316
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