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.
When Heaven is about to confer a great office upon you, it first exercises your mind with suffering and your sinews and bones with toil.
Virtue alone is not sufficient for the exercise of government; laws alone cannot carry themselves into practice.