Confucius Way Quotations

Sincerity is that whereby self-completion is effected, and its way is that by which man must direct himself.

If doing what ought to be done be made the first business and success a secondary consideration--is not this the way to exalt virtue?

The really faithful lover of learning holds fast to the Good Way till death.

Sincerity is the way of heaven.

The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?

There is one single thread binding my way together...the way of the Master consists in doing one's best...that is all.

If there were an honorable way to get rich, I’d do it, even if it meant being a stooge standing around with a whip. But there isn’t an honorable way, so I just do what I like.

You turn the handle the way it goes, not the way it ought to go

The way you cut your meat reflects the way you live.

The failure to cultivate virtue, the failure to examine and analyze what I have learned, the inability to move toward righteousness after being shown the way, the inability to correct my faults-these are the causes of my grief.

The superior man is firm in the right way and not merely firm.

The Master said, “A true gentleman is one who has set his heart upon the Way. A fellow who is ashamed merely of shabby clothing or modest meals is not even worth conversing with.” (Analects 4.9)

Wisdom, humanity & courage, these three are universal virtues. The way by which they are practiced are one.

The Master said, I set my heart on the Way, base myself on virtue, lean upon benevolence for support and take my recreation in the arts.

It is the way of the superior man to prefer the concealment of his virtue, while it daily becomes more illustrious, and it is the way of the mean man to seek notoriety, while he daily goes more and more to ruin.

The ideal teacher guides his students but does not pull them along; he urges them to go forward and does not suppress them; he opens the way but does not take them to the place.

Wisdom is rooted in watching with affection the way people grow.

Not to mend one's ways when one has erred is to err indeed.

The Way is not for, but from, man; if we take the Way as something superhuman, beyond man, this is not the real Way.