Confucius Quotes
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It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
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Gentlemen cherish worth; the vulgar cherish dirt. Gentlemen trust in justice; the vulgar trust in favor.
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There are some with whom we may study in common, but we shall find them unable to go along with us to principles. Perhaps we may go on with them to principles, but we shall find them unable to get established in those along with us. Or if we may get so established along with them, we shall find them unable to weigh occurring events along with us.
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What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.
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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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Love should start from people close to us, then be extended to other people, to strangers, and eventually to the world.
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A man who does not forget an agreement is resolved and honorable man.
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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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Some are born with knowledge, some derive it from study, and some acquire it only after a painful realization of their ignorance. But the knowledge being possessed, it comes to the same thing. Some study with a natural ease, some from a desire for advantages, and some by strenuous effort. But the achievement being made, it comes to the same thing.
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He who cannot describe the problem will never find the solution to that problem.
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What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
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Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you.
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Every journey starts with a single step.
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Woman is the masterpiece.
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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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He who needs only coarse food, water and drink, and as pillow his folded arms will find happiness without further search.
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To learn and from time to time to apply what one has learned - isn't that a pleasure?
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A man of humanity is one who, in seeking to establish himself, finds a foothold for others and who, in desiring attaining himself, helps others to attain.
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An inch of time on the sundial is worth more than a foot of jade.
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To know is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.
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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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Ah, music, sacred tongue of God! I hear thee calling and I come.
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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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Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone might be looking. Hear and you forget, see and you remember, do and you understand.