Mencius Quotations

Friends are the siblings God never gave us.

If the king loves music, there is little wrong in the land.

He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.

The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.

Evil exists to glorify the good. Evil is negative good. It is a relative term. Evil can be transmuted into good. What is evil to one at one time, becomes good at another time to somebody else.

There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination.

Mankind fears an evil man but heaven does not.

I like fish, and I also like bear's paws. If I cannot have the two together, I will let the fish go, and take the bear's paws. So, I like life, and I also like righteousness. If I cannot keep the two together, I will let life go, and choose righteousness.

People can have a long-term life plan only if they know their private property is secure.

It is not difficult to govern. All one has to do is not to offend the noble families.

Every duty is a charge, but the charge of oneself is the root of all others.

Truth uttered before its time is always dangerous.

Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue.

Let not a man do what his sense of right bids him not to do, nor desire what it forbids him to desire. This is sufficient. The skillful artist will not alter his measures for the sake of a stupid workman.

Only when a man will not do some things is he capable of doing great things.

Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.

The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the least.

The root of the kingdom is in the state. The root of the state is in the family. The root of the family is in the person of its head.

If Confucius wasn't born, the long night would have no bright lamp.

Secure property in hand leads to peace in mind.

A trail through the mountains, if used, becomes a path in a short time, but, if unused, becomes blocked by grass in an equally short time.

Without effective protection of the citizens' right to property, it will be difficult to attract and accumulate valuable capital.

Let men decide firmly what they will not do, and they will be free to do vigorously what they ought to do.

Sincerity is the way to heaven; to think how to be sincere is the way of man.

A man must not be without shame, for the shame of being without shame is shamelessness indeed.

The way of truth is like a great road. It is not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will not seek it.

If you know that a thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it--why wait till next year?

Human nature is good, just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good, just as there is no water that does not flow downward.

The five kinds of grains are considered good plants, but if the grains are not ripe, they are worse than cockles. It is the same with regard to kindness, which must grow into maturity.

The ways are two: love and want of love. That is all.

When Heaven is about to confer a great office on a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil ; it exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty ; it confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.

Friendship is one mind in two bodies.

Sincerity is the way to heaven.

He who loves others is constantly loved by them. He who respects others is constantly respected by them.

The best things in life come in threes, like friends, dreams, and memories.

The fruit of humanity is devotion to one's parents. The fruit of righteousness is to respect one's elders. The fruit of wisdom is to understand these two and not to betray them. The fruit of propriety is to regulate and polish them. The fruit of music is the joy that comes from rejoicing in them. When one rejoices in them, they grow. When they grow, how can they be stopped? And when they cannot be stopped, unconsciously one's feet begin to dance and one's arms begin to wave.

If you know the point of balance, You can settle the details. If you can settle the details, You can stop running around. Your mind will become calm. If your mind becomes calm, You can think in front of a tiger. If you can think in front of a tiger, You will surely succeed.

The feeling of compassion is the beginning of humanity.

The disease of men is that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others.

To act without clear understanding, to form habits without investigation, to follow a path all one's life without knowing where it really leads; such is the behavior of the multitude.

Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.

Where it is permissible both to die and not to die, it is an abuse of valour to die.

Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence

Charity is in the heart of man, and righteousness in the path of men. Pity the man who has lost his path and does not follow it and who has lost his heart and does not know how to recover it. When people's dogs and chicks are lost they go out and look for them and yet the people who have lost their hearts do not go out and look for them. The principle of self-cultivation consists in nothing but trying to look for the lost heart.

People are eager to comment on something when they themselves are not in the situation of doing it.

If you love men and they are unfriendly, look into your love; if you rule men and they are unruly, look into your wisdom; if you are courteous to them and they do not respond, look into your courtesy. If what you do is vain, always seek within.

If the King loves music, it is well with the land.

There is a power in everything; it is the job of the artist to determine it and express it.

He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature

If you let people follow their feelings, they will be able to do good. This is what is meant by saying that human nature is good.

Only those who develop their minds and spirits to the utmost can serve Heaven and fulfill their own destinies.

One who believes all of a book would be better off without books

Treat your elders as elders, and extend it to the elders of others; treat your young ones as young ones, and extend it to the young ones of others; then you can turn the whole world in the palm of your hand

I dislike death, however, there are some things I dislike more than death. Therefore, there are times when I will not avoid danger.

A small country cannot contend with a great; the few cannot contend with the many; the weak cannot contend with the strong

When Heaven is about to confer a great office upon you, it first exercises your mind with suffering and your sinews and bones with toil.

Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue, and does not admit of assumptions of superiority.

It is true that water will flow indifferently to east and west, but will it flow equally well up and down? Human nature is disposed toward goodness, just as water tends to flow downwards. There is no water but flows downwards, and no man but shows his tendency to be good. Now, by striking water hard, you may splash it higher than your forehead, and by damming it, you may make it go uphill. But, is that the nature of water? It is external force that causes it to do so. Likewise, if a man is made to do what is not good, his nature is being similarly forced.

In abundance prepare for scarcity.

The sole concern of learning is to seek one's original heart.

A great man is one who has not lost the child's heart.

A man must first despise himself, and then others will despise him.

By exhaustively examining one's own mind,one may understand his nature.One who understands his own nature understands Heaven.

The tendency of mans nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downward.

The great man does not think beforehand of his words that they may be sincere, nor of his actions that they may be resolute- he simply speaks and does what is right.

He who respects others is respected by them.

A real man is he whose goodness is a part of himself.

Benevolence is one of the distinguishing characters of man.

When I say that all men have the mind which cannot bear to see the suffering of others, my meaning is illustrated this way: when two men suddenly see a child about to fall into a well, they all have a feeling of alarm and distress, not to gain friendship with the child's parents, nor to seek the praise of their neighbors and friends. From such a case, we see that a man without the feeling of commiseration is not a man. The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity.

There is the work of great men and there is the work of little men. Therefore it is said, 'Some labor with their minds and some labor with their strength. Those who labor with their minds govern others; those who labor with their strength are governed by others.'1 Those who are governed by others support them; those who govern them are supported by them. This is a universal principle.

The Way lies at hand yet it is sought afar off; the thing lies in the easy yet it is sought in the difficult.

The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote; the work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.

Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do.

The Tao is near and people seek it far away.

He who goes to the bottom of his own heart knows his own nature; And knowing his own nature, he knows heaven.

When one by force subdues men, they do not submit to him in heart. They submit because their strength is not adequate to resist.

So I like life and I like righteousness; if I cannot keep the two together, I will let life go and choose righteousness.

Those who follow the part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow the part which is little are little men.

The gap between enthusiasm and indifference is filled with failures. The great man is he that does not lose his child's heart.

The man of true greatness never loses his child's heart.

To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets.

The regular path of virtue is to be pursued without any bend, and from no view to emolument.

Only when someone refuses to do certain things will he be capable of doing great things.

Incessant falls teach men to reform, and distress rouses their strength. Life springs from calamity, and death from ease.

All things are already complete in us. There is no greater delight than to be conscious of right within us. If one strives to treat others as he would be treated by them, he shall not fail to come near the perfect life.

The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity; the feeling of shame and dislike is the beginning of righteousness; the feeling of deference and compliance is the beginning of propriety; and the feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom.Men have these Four Beginnings just as they have their four limbs. Having these Four Beginnings, but saying that they cannot develop them is to destroy themselves.

Human nature is disposed to do good.

All people have the common desire to be elevated in honour, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.

The myriad things are complete in us. There is no greater joy than to reflect on ourselves and become sincere.

The feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom

Never has there been one possessed of complete sincerity who did not move others. Never has there been one who had not sincerity who was able to move others.

Is it only the mouth and belly which are injured by hunger and thirst? Men's minds are also injured by them.

The way is One and only One. The way is close at hand, but men seek it afar.

The way is near, but men seek it afar. It is in easy things, but men seek for it in difficult things.

He who wishes to be benevolent will not be rich.

The way of truth is like a great highway. It is not hard to find.

Truth uttered before its time is dangerous.

The way of learning is none other than finding the lost mind.

He who outrages benevolence is called a ruffian: he who outrages righteousness is called a villain. I have heard of the cutting off of the villain Chow, but I have not heard of the putting of a ruler to death.

The poor attend to their own virtue in solitude.