Inner Strength
The junzi possesses inner strength and stability.
The junzi has inner resources that provide stability. Neither praise nor criticism, success nor failure, disturbs their equilibrium. This strength comes from virtue, not from external circumstances.
The junzi is calm and at ease; the small person is always worried and nervous.
Inner peace comes from moral cultivation.
Analects
Written about in
- What Confucianism says about failure
The junzi is calm and at ease; the small person always worried. The claim is that stability comes from virtue rather than from outcomes, so a bad result cannot reach the thing you are standing on.