Xunzi Quotes

“I short, the government tried to tame people's selfish nature by means of education and ritual, and when that didn't work, it tried harsh punishments to enforce norms that people knew, deep down, had social benefits. Eventually, the punishments closed the gap between the norm and the practice and the government could rely mainly on moral self-regulation instead of harsh punishment, but without completely doing away with laws that served as last-resort checks on selfish and dangerous behavior. More or less as Xunzi would have recommended: Best to rely on informal means of regulation that transform people's selfish tendencies, and if that doesn't work, use the strong arm of the law.”
― Daniel A. Bell, The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University