Confucius Quotes
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If you devote your life to seeking revenge, first dig two graves.
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Excessive (population) growth may reduce output per worker, repress levels of living for the masses and engender strife.
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From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.
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We should worship as though the deity were present.
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He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.
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To know your faults and be able to change is the greatest virtue.
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Who keeps the old akindle and adds new knowledge is fitted to be a teacher.
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Even four harnessed horses cannot bring imprudent words back into the mouth.
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Never hesitate to ask a lesser person.
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Therefore only through education does one come to be dissatisfied with his own knowledge, and only through teaching others does one come to realize the uncomfortable inadequacy of his knowledge. Being dissatisfied with his own knowledge, one then realizes that the trouble lies with himself, and realizing the uncomfortable inadequacy of his knowledger.
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To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.
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Waste begets self-will; thrift begets meanness: but better be mean than self-willed.
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True goodness springs from a man's own heart. All men are born good.
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Among us, in our part of the country, those who are upright are different from this. The father conceals the misconduct of the son, and the son conceals the misconduct of the father. Uprightness is to be found in this.
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There is no body but eats and drinks. But they are few who can distinguish flavors.
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When the Superior Man eats he does not try to stuff himself; at rest he does not seek perfect comfort; he is diligent in his work and careful in speech. He avails himself to people of the Tao and thereby corrects himself. This is the kind of person of whom you can say, "he loves learning."
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Among the appliances to transform the people, sound and appearances are but trivial influences.
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When a man is guided by the principles of reciprocity and consciousness, he is not far from the moral law. Whatever you don't wish for yourself don't do unto others.
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To rein a kingdom efficiently it is necessary, before all, to put into good order the family. It's impossible for a man who doesn't know how to lead his own family to know how to lead a country.
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The perfecting of one's self is the fundamental base of all progress and all moral development.
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We take greater pains to persuade others that we are happy than in endeavoring to think so ourselves.
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In ancient times, those who wished to illuminate the world with virtue first brought order to their nations. Wishing to order well their nations, they first harmonized their families. Wishing to harmonize their families, they first cultivated themselves. Wishing to cultivate themselves, they first rectified their minds. Those who wished to rectify their minds first made their intentions sincere.
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Good people strengthen themselves ceaselessly.
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By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.