Q0287

“The trouble with people is that they are blinkered by one corner…” — Xunzi (Xunzi, Dispelling Blindness)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Xunzi, Dispelling Blindness. Theme: wisdom.

English

The trouble with people is that they are blinkered by one corner and obscure the greater pattern.
Thinker Xunzi
School Confucianism
Source Xunzi, Dispelling Blindness
Theme Wisdom
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Xunzi, Dispelling Blindness and files it under Confucianism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Xunzi

Xunzi (Xun Kuang, c. 310–c.

How to read this passage

Unlike mere information, wisdom concerns judgment. Ancient schools linked it to virtue, moderation, and the right relation to desire. This passage enters that discussion through wisdom.

Concepts in this quote

Wisdom
Wisdom is practical insight under uncertainty: knowing what matters, what one does not know, and how to act without false certainty.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Xunzi. (n.d.). The trouble with people is that they are blinkered by one corner and obscure the greater pattern. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0287

MLA: Xunzi. “The trouble with people is that they are….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0287.

Chicago: Xunzi. “The trouble with people is that they are….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0287.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “The trouble with people is that they are…”?

The passage is attributed to Xunzi, Xunzi, Dispelling Blindness. The archive attributes this English wording to Xunzi, Dispelling Blindness and files it under Confucianism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Xunzi mean by wisdom?

Unlike mere information, wisdom concerns judgment. Ancient schools linked it to virtue, moderation, and the right relation to desire. This passage enters that discussion through wisdom.

Same thinker

More from Xunzi

  1. Indigo is taken from the indigo plant, yet is bluer than the plant; ice is made of water, yet is colder than water.
  2. Without accumulating small steps, one cannot reach a thousand li; without accumulating small streams, one cannot form rivers and seas.
  3. Learning must never stop.
  4. Human nature is bad; whatever is good about it is the product of deliberate activity (wei).
  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 wisdom

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the wisdom theme