Q0150

Xunzi

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Indigo is taken from the indigo plant, yet is bluer than the plant; ice is made of water, yet is colder than water.
Thinker Xunzi
School Confucianism
Source Xunzi, Exhortation to Learning
Theme Learning
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Xunzi, Exhortation to Learning, within the tradition of Confucianism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of learning, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Xunzi's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Xunzi. (n.d.). Indigo is taken from the indigo plant, yet is bluer than the plant; ice is made of water, yet is colder than water. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0150

MLA: Xunzi. “Indigo is taken from the indigo plant, yet….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0150.

Chicago: Xunzi. “Indigo is taken from the indigo plant, yet….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0150.

Same thinker

More from Xunzi

  1. Without accumulating small steps, one cannot reach a thousand li; without accumulating small streams, one cannot form rivers and seas.
  2. Learning must never stop.
  3. Human nature is bad; whatever is good about it is the product of deliberate activity (wei).
  4. The trouble with people is that they are blinkered by one corner and obscure the greater pattern.
  5. Seeing the good, be earnest to preserve it in yourself; seeing the not-good, be anxious to examine yourself.

All quotations by Xunzi

Same theme

More on learning

  1. Leisure without study is death — a tomb for a living man.
  2. The Master said: Is it not a pleasure to learn and to practice what one has learned in due time? Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar? Is it not the mark of a gentleman to remain unresentful when others fail to appreciate one?
  3. The Master said: When three people walk together, one of them is sure to be my teacher. I select what is good in them and follow it; what is not good, I correct in myself.
  4. Zengzi said: Each day I examine myself on three counts: In acting on behalf of others, have I been loyal? In dealings with friends, have I been trustworthy? Have I practiced what was passed on to me?
  5. The Master said: Those who know it are not equal to those who love it; those who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.

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