Things are born to be different.

This is a line in The Book of Mencius, which states an objective law that "things are born to be different." The idea respects the differences among things and reminds people to regard differences not as aliens, but as a kind of supplement to offset one's shortcomings.

Xi Jinping uses this saying on many occasions to explain the relationships between countries and civilizations. In his written answers to the questions of The Wall Street Journal in September 2015, he quoted Mencius again and pointed out: With so much difference in ethnicity, history, culture, religion, social system, development level and lifestyle, there are things about others that one may find hard to understand. This is for sure, but that said, it is also true that anything that is seemingly incomprehensible can be understood provided that one is ready to learn and make an effort to understand it instead of dismissing it altogether.

物之不齊，物之情也

“物之不齊，物之情也”，出自《孟子》，意為物品千差萬別，這是客觀情況和自然規律。這一理念強調事物的差異性，告訴人們不必把差別看作異類，而應將差異作為自己取長補短的補充。

習近平在論述國與國之間、不同文明之間的關系時，多次引用“物之不齊，物之情也”這句古語。2015年9月，習近平接受美國《華爾街日報》采訪時引用這一古語，指出既然世界上存在著不同的民族、歷史、文化、宗教、制度、發展水平、生活方式，那就肯定會存在一些相互之間不那么好理解的事情。但是，一切看上去不可理解的事情都是可以理解的，關鍵是要有去理解的意愿與行動，而不是彼此排斥、無法兼容。