Confucius Quotes
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Between friends, frequent reproofs make the friendship distant.
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Only one who bursts with enthusiasm do I instruct; Only one who bubbles with excitement do I enlighten. If I hold up one corner and you do not come back to me with the other three, I do not continue the lesson.
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Of course you want to be rich and famous. It's natural. Wealth and fame are what every man desires. The question is: What are you willing to trade for it?
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All things are already complete in oneself.
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When a person should be spoken with, and you don't speak with them, you lose them. When a person shouldn't be spoken with and you speak to them, you waste your breath. The wise do not lose people, nor do they waste their breath.
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Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish.
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A scholar who loves comfort is not fit to be called a scholar.
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Coarse rice to eat, water to drink, my bended arm for a pillow - therein is happiness. Wealth and rank attained through immoral means are nothing but drifting clouds.
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In teaching there should be no distinction of classes.
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Not feeling compassion for a stranger is like not feeling when one's foot has caught fire.
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A lack of patience in trifling matters might lead to the disruption of great project.
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The general of a large army may be defeated, but you cannot defeat the determined mind of a peasant.
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The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.
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When anger rises, think of the consequences.
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The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the center of a very large tree.
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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.
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Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know more.
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Straight-forwardness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness.
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He who sling mud, lose ground.
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The superior man honors his virtuous nature, and maintains constant inquiry and study, seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces, and to raise it to its greatest height and brilliancy.
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The superior man is easy to serve, but difficult to please ... The inferior man is difficult to serve, but easy to please.
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There is good government when those who are near are made happy, and when those who are afar are attracted.
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The Master said, "Wealth and honor are things that all people desire, and yet unless they are acquired in the proper way I will not abide them. Poverty and disgrace are things that all people hate, and yet unless they are avoided in the proper way I will not despise them. If the gentleman abandons ren, how can he be worthy of that name? The gentleman does not violate ren even for the amount of time required to eat a meal. Even in times of urgency or distress, he does not depart from it."
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The superior person is calm and composed; the lesser person is continuously worried and distressed.