Confucius Quotes
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When a man comes to me, I accept him at his best, not at his worst. Why make so much ado? When a man washes his hands before paying a visit, and you receive him in that clean state, you do not thereby stand surety for his always having been clean in the past.
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If you would one day renovate yourself, do so from day to day.
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The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.
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What is God-given is called nature; to follow nature is called Tao (the Way); to cultivate the way is called culture. Before joy, anger, sadness and happiness are expressed, they are called the inner self; when they are expressed to the proper degree, they are called harmony. The inner self is the correct foundation of the world, and the harmony is the illustrious Way. When a man has achieved the inner self and harmony, the heaven and earth are orderly and the myriad of things are nourished and grow thereby.
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Good is no hermit. It has ever neighbors.
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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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The more people know, the more they forgive.
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Learning without thought is labour lost.
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One who is by nature daring and is suffering from poverty will not long be law-abiding. Indeed, any men, save those that are truly good, if their sufferings are very great, will be likely to rebel.
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If a superior man abandon virtue, how can he fulfil the requirements of that name?
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Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.
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Music is the one thing in which there is no use trying to deceive others or make false pretenses.
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He who cannot describe the problem will never find the solution to that problem.
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Make faithfulness and truth thy masters: have no friends unlike thyself: be not ashamed to mend thy faults.
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When you have become one with the Great Universal, you will have no partiality, and when you are part of the process of transformation, you will have no rigidity.
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The superior man does not mind being in office; all he minds about is whether he has qualities that entitle him to office. He does not mind failing to get recognition; he is too busy doing the things that entitle him to recognition.
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Don't make to others what you don't want them to make to you.
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Care not for want of place; care for thy readiness to fill one. Care not for being unknown, but seek to be worthy of note.
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An inch of time on the sundial is worth more than a foot of jade.
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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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It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
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For one word a man is often deemed to be wise, and for one word he is often deemed to be foolish. We should be careful indeed what we say.
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We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression; the heart of a wise man should resemble a mirror, which reflects every object without being sullied by any.
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Rather than caring about whether or not you are known, strive to be worth knowing.