Q0410

Wang Yangming

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

One must temper oneself in the midst of affairs; only then can one stand firm — settled in stillness and settled in action alike.
Thinker Wang Yangming
School School of Mind
Source Instructions for Practical Living
Theme Justice
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Instructions for Practical Living, within the tradition of School of Mind. 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 justice, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Wang Yangming'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: Wang Yangming. (n.d.). One must temper oneself in the midst of affairs; only then can one stand firm — settled in stillness and settled in action alike. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0410

MLA: Wang Yangming. “One must temper oneself in the midst of….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0410.

Chicago: Wang Yangming. “One must temper oneself in the midst of….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0410.

Same thinker

More from Wang Yangming

  1. Knowledge is the directing idea of action; action is the effort of knowledge. Knowledge is the beginning of action; action is the completion of knowledge.
  2. There has never been one who truly knows and yet does not act. If one knows but does not act, that is simply not yet knowing.
  3. Extend the innate good knowing.
  4. Mind is principle. Are there affairs or principles outside the mind?
  5. That little bit of innate knowing of yours is your own criterion.

All quotations by Wang Yangming

Same theme

More on justice

  1. It is worse to do injustice than to suffer it.
  2. Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'.
  3. Those who have the Way receive much help; those who lose the Way receive little help.
  4. I say that the noble and good man and woman are happy, and the unjust and wicked are miserable.
  5. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it…Reason…teaches all mankind…that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.

Browse the justice theme