Confucius Quotes
-
The more you know yourself, the more you forgive yourself.
-
The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.
-
Character is the backbone of our human culture. Music is the flowering of character.
-
How great is the path proper to the Sage! Like overflowing water, it sends forth and nourishes all things, and rises up to the height of heaven. All-complete is its greatness! It embraces the three hundred rules of ceremony, and the three thousand rules of demeanor. It waits for the proper man, and then it is trodden. Hence it is said, 'Only by perfect virtue can the perfect path, in all its courses, be made a fact.'
-
A true gentleman makes demands upon himself but not upon others.
-
No lake so still but it has its wave. No circle so perfect but that it has its blur. I would change things for you if I could; As I can't you must take them as they are.
-
We should not be too familiar with the lower orders or with women.
-
If there were one word that could act as a standard of conduct for one's entire life, perhaps it would be 'thoughtfulness.
-
Eat at your own as you would the table of a king.
-
It doesn't make a difference how gradually you go so long as you don't stop.
-
When nature exceeds culture, we have the rustic. When culture exceeds nature, we have the pedant.
-
A man living without conflicts, as if he never lives at all.
-
When I am with others, they are my teachers. I can select their good points and follow them, and select their bad points and avoid them.
-
Shall I tell you what knowledge is? It is to know both what one knows and what one does not know.
-
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
-
To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge. When you say something, say what you know. When you don't know something, say you don't know. That is knowledge.
-
To love a thing means wanting it to live.
-
Don't let your past determine your destiny.
-
It is better not to proceed at all than to proceed without purpose.
-
With a heavy load and a long journey.
-
I have never seen one who really loves goodness or one who really hates wickedness. One who really loves goodness will not place anything above it. One who really hates wickedness will practice goodness in such a way that wickedness will have no chance to get at him. Is there anyone who has devoted his whole strength to doing good for even as long as a single day? I have not seen anyone give up such an attempt because he had not the strength to go on. Perhaps there is such a case, but I have never seen it.
-
The general of a large army may be defeated, but you cannot defeat the determined mind of a peasant.
-
Being strong does not mean that you never fall down, but that whenever you fall, you get up again.
-
The superior man is quiet and calm, waiting for the appointments of heaven, while the mean man walks in dangerous paths, looking for lucky occurrences.