“Pray all you want, heaven can’t hear you. It’s not going to stop the winter because you are cold, and it’s not going to make the earth smaller because you don’t want to walk so far. You pray for rain and it rains, but your prayer has nothing to do with it. Sometimes you don’t pray for rain and it rains anyway. What do you say then? If you act wisely, good things tend to happen. Act like a fool and bad things tend to happen. Don’t thank or curse heaven, it’s just the natural result of your own actions. If you want to have a better life, educate yourself and think carefully about the consequences of your own actions.”

• Xun Zi