《孟子·告子章句下·第十五节》
所以上天要把重任降临在某人的身上，必定要先使他的内心痛苦，使他的筋骨劳累，使他经受饥饿之苦，以致肌肤消瘦，使他受贫困之苦，扰乱其人业已开始的行动，这样来使他的心灵受到震撼，使他的性情坚忍起来，增加他所不具备的能力。
故天将降大任于是人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行拂乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。
Therefore, when Heaven is about to confer great responsibility on any man, it will exercise his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil, expose his body to hunger, and subject him to extreme poverty; it will confound his plans, so as to try his heart and see whether he is sincere, and to make the evil in his nature manifest. Then it will send some great opportunity to him, and see whether he equal to it.