Confucius Quotes
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A lion chased me up a tree, and I greatly enjoyed the view from the top.
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When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
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If we don't know life, how can we know death?
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Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
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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.'
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Respect yourself and others will respect you.
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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.
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Don't let your past determine your destiny.
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What the great learning teaches, is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.
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To love a thing means wanting it to live.
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Shall I tell you what knowledge is? It is to know both what one knows and what one does not know.
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Eat at your own as you would the table of a king.
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When the perfect order prevails, the world is like a home shared by all. Leaders are capable and virtuous. Everyone loves and respects their own parents and children as well as the parents and children of others. The old are cared for, adults have jobs, children are nourished and educated. There is a means of support for all those who are disabled or find themselves alone in the world. Everyone has an appropriate role to play in the family and society. Devotion to public duty leaves no place for idleness. Scheming for ill gain is unknown. Sharing displaces selfishness and materialism.
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We should not be too familiar with the lower orders or with women.
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She who is born with beauty is born with a sorrow for many a man.
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To study and constantly, is this not a pleasure? To have friends come from far away places, is this not a joy? If people do not recognize your worth, but this does not worry you, are you not a true gentleman?
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Heaven means to be one with God.
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With a heavy load and a long journey.
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If I do not participate in the sacrifice, it is as if I did not sacrifice at all.
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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.
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The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.
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I know how the birds fly, how the fishes swim, how animals run. But there is the Dragon. I cannot tell how it mounts on the winds through the clouds and flies through heaven. Today I have seen the Dragon.
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Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it. To see it a person only needs to imagine how it could be worse.
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Worry not that no one knows you; seek to be worth knowing.