"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."
"The great man does not think beforehand of his words that they may be sincere, nor of his actions that they may be resolute- he simply speaks and does what is right."
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Source: Confucius, Mencius (1930). “The four books: Confucian Analects, The great learning, The doctrine of the mean, and The works of Mencius. With English notes and translation by James Legge”
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