"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."
"So I like life and I like righteousness; if I cannot keep the two together, I will let life go and choose righteousness."
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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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