Confucius Quotes
-
How transcendent is the virtue of the middle conduct! Rare for a long time has been its practice among the people.
-
The archer who misses his mark does not blame the target. He stops, corrects himself and shoots again.
-
The Path is not far from man. When men try to pursue a course, which is far from the common indications of consciousness, this course cannot be considered The Path.
-
If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children.
-
Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
-
An angry person is always full of poison.
-
Learn, as if never overtaking your object, and yet as if apprehensive of losing it.
-
Not to converse with a man worthy of conversation is to waste the man. To converse with a man not worthy of conversation is to waste words. The wise waste neither men nor words.
-
Every piece of marble has a statue in it waiting to be released by a person of sufficient skill to chip away the unnecessary parts. Just as the sculptor is to the marble, so is education to the soul. It releases it. For only educated people are free people. You cannot create a statue by smashing the marble with a hammer, and you cannot by the force of arms release the spirit or the soul of people.
-
A scholar who loves comfort is not fit to be called a scholar.
-
There is one single thread binding my way together...the way of the Master consists in doing one's best...that is all.
-
Things have their roots and branches. Affairs have their beginnings and their ends. To know what is first and what is last will lead one near the Way.
-
When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.
-
A hammer shatters glass but it also forges steel.
-
Sincerity is the end and beginning of things; without sincerity there would be nothing.
-
By gaining the people, the kingdom is gained; by losing the people, the kingdom is lost.
-
Learning without thought is labour lost.
-
I daily examine myself on three points: In planning for others, have I failed in conscientiousness? In intercourse with friends, have I been insincere? And have I failed to practice what I have been taught?
-
The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.
-
All things are already complete in oneself.
-
A ruthless man extends his ruthlessness from those he does not love to those he loves.
-
A wise man seeks by music to strengthen his soul: the thoughtless one uses it to stifle his fears.
-
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.
-
A disciple having asked for a definition of charity, the Master said LOVE ONE ANOTHER.