Fan Ju (recorded by Sima Qian)

Fan Ju (c. 3rd century BCE)

“I have heard that when desire knows no stopping, one will lose what he desires, and when possession knows no surfeit, one will lose what he possesses.”

• From the Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji 79) by Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE). Sima Qian attributed this quote to Fan Ju, a minister in the ancient kingdom of Qin. The translation used here is by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1993).