害人之心不可有,防人之心不可無

简 害人之心不可有,防人之心不可无 · 繁 害人之心不可有,防人之心不可無
Mandarin · pinyin hài rén zhī xīn bù kě yǒu , fáng rén zhī xīn bù kě wú

Meanings

  1. refrain from hurting others, yet guard against those trying to hurt you (proverb)
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Characters in this entry

害
hài · injure, harm; destroy, kill
人
rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
心
xīn · heart; mind, intelligence; soul; 5th lunar mansion, determinative star α Scorpii (Antares)
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
可
kě · may, can, -able; possibly
有
yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
防
fáng · defend; prevent; embankment
無
Look up this written character
无
wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

害人之心不可有,防人之心不可無 · find source passages ↗ · 害人之心不可有,防人之心不可无 · find source passages ↗

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害人之心不可有,防人之心不可無 · hai4 ren2 zhi1 xin1 bu4 ke3 you3 , fang2 ren2 zhi1 xin1 bu4 ke3 wu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 32,786
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record害人之心不可有,防人之心不可無 害人之心不可有,防人之心不可无 [hai4 ren2 zhi1 xin1 bu4 ke3 you3 , fang2 ren2 zhi1 xin1 bu4 ke3 wu2] /refrain from hurting others, yet guard against those trying to hurt you (proverb)/