Young people should chase the good as if they could never catch it, and flee the bad as if dipping into boiling water.
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history
From 《论语·季氏》 (Analects, Book 16): 孔子曰：见善如不及，见不善如探汤。 - 'Confucius said: on seeing good, pursue it as if you could never catch up; on seeing evil, recoil as from boiling water. I have met such a man; I have heard his words.' The saying became the template for active moral striving in Confucian ethics.
usage
Almost always quoted alongside its twin 见不善如探汤 ('on seeing evil, recoil as from boiling water'). The pair forms a single moral instruction - eager pursuit of virtue, instant recoil from vice.
