Mencius replied. "If you were asked to jump over the North Sea with Mount Tai under your arm, you say to people, ‘I am not able to do it.’ That is a real case of not being able to. If asked to break a twig for an elder, you say to people, ‘I am not able to do it.’ That is a case of not being willing to do it, rather than a case of not being able to.

Mencius replied, ‘In such a thing as taking the T’âi mountain under your arm, and leaping over the north sea with it, if you say to people—"I am not able to do it," that is a real case of not being able. In such a matter as breaking off a branch from a tree at the order of a superior, if you say to people—"I am not able to do it," that is a case of not doing it, it is not a case of not being able to do it.

Mencius said, If I am to clasp a big hill and jump the North Sea, and I say that I cannot do it, I really cannot do it; but if I am to break a twig for an elder, and I say that I cannot do it, it is not that I cannot do it, but that I will not do it.

"You can say that you’re incapable of bounding over theNorth Sea with T’ai Mountain tucked under your arm, andin fact you are incapable. You can also say that you're incapable of breaking up a little kindling for an old woman, but in fact you're unwilling, not incapable.

Mencius replied, suppose a man is required to take Tae Shan (a great mountain) under his arm, and leap over the north sea, if he say I am not able, this is real inability. But if a man be commanded by his superior to break a small branch of a tree, were he to say, I am not able, this is not inability, but want of will.