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.
MenciusHe who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.
MenciusThere is the work of great men and there is the work of little men. Therefore it is said, 'Some labor with their minds and some labor with their strength. Those who labor with their minds govern others; those who labor with their strength are governed by others.'1 Those who are governed by others support them; those who govern them are supported by them. This is a universal principle.
Mencius