Confucius Quotes
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Those who break down the dikes will themselves be drowned in the inundation.
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On matters beyond his ken a gentleman speaks with caution. If names are not right, words are misused. When words are misused, affairs go wrong. When affairs go wrong, courtesy and music droop, law and justice fail. And when law and justice fail them, a people can move neither hand nor foot. So a gentleman must be ready to put names in speech, to put words into deeds. A gentleman is nowise careless of words.
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I am not an originator but a transmitter.
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Don't make to others what you don't want them to make to you.
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Man is born for uprightness. If a man lose his uprightness and yet live, his escape from death is mere good fortune.
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One who has accumulated virtue will certainly also possess eloquence; but he who has eloquence doe not necessarily possess virtue.
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It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.
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Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in.
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It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
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Base yourself in loyalty and trust. Don't be companion with those who are not your moral equal. When you make a mistake, don't hesitate to correct it.
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A hammer shatters glass but it also forges steel.
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A country of a thousand war-chariots cannot be administered unless the ruler attends strictly to business, punctually observes his promises, is economical in expenditure, loves the people, and uses the labor of the peasantry only at the proper times of year.
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If a man remembers what is right at the sign of profit, is ready to lay down his life in the face of danger, and does not forget sentiments he has repeated all his life when he has been in straitened circumstances for a long time, he may be said to be a complete man.
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Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you.
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Although your father and mother are dead, if you propose to yourself any good work, only reflect how it will make their names illustrious, and your purpose will be fixed.
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Tsze-Kung asked, “Is there one word with which to act in accordance throughout a lifetime?” The Master said, “Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
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A lack of patience in trifling matters might lead to the disruption of great project.
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The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.
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Only by perfect virtue can the perfect path, in all its courses, be made a fact.
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Faithfulness and sincerity are the highest things.
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When superiors are fond of showing their humanity, inferiors try to outstrip one another in their practice of it.
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Thought, unassisted by learning, is dangerous.
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It is only the very wisest and the very stupidest who never change.
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Watch their actions, observe their motives, examine wherein they dwell content; won't you know what kind of person they are?