Confucius Quotes
-
First there must be order and harmony within your own mind. Then this order will spread to your family, then to the community, and finally to your entire kingdom. Only then can you have peace and harmony.
-
When people are educated, the distinction between classes disappears.
-
A superior man may be made to go to the well, but he cannot be made to go down into it. He may be imposed upon, but he cannot be fooled.
-
To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order; we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.
-
It's only in winter that the pine and cypress are known to be evergreens.
-
Learning, undigested by thought, is labor lost.
-
Justice is like the north star, which is fixed, and all the rest revolve about it.
-
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
-
Exemplary persons are steadfast in the face of adversity, while petty persons are engulfed by it.
-
If you chase two rabbits, you catch none.
-
The superior man is intelligently, not blindly, faithful.
-
A fool marvels at rare things, but a wise man at common ones.
-
Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.
-
If you would govern a state of a thousand chariots (a small-to-middle-size state), you must pay strict attention to business, be true to your word, be economical in expenditure and love the people.
-
Be aroused by poetry; structure yourself with propriety, refine yourself with music.
-
Tzu Chang asked Confucius about jen. Confucius said, "If you can practice these five things with all the people, you can be called jen." Tzu Chang asked what they were. Confucius said, "Courtesy, generosity, honesty, persistence, and kindness. If you are courteous, you will not be disrespected; if you are generous, you will gain everything. If you are honest, people will rely on you. If you are persistent you will get results. If you are kind, you can employ people.
-
Every house guest brings you happiness. Some when they arrive, and some when they are leaving.
-
Girl who sit on Judge's lap get honorable discharge.
-
If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others.
-
I used to listen to what others said, and expect them to act accordingly. But nowadays, I listen to what they say, and then observe what they do.
-
The Master said, The case is like that of someone raising a mound. If he stops working, the fact that it perhaps needed only one more basketful makes no difference; I stay where I am. Whereas even if he has not got beyond leveling the ground, but is still at work, the fact that he has only tilted one basketful of earth makes no difference. I go to help him.
-
The really faithful lover of learning holds fast to the Good Way till death.
-
From the loving example of one family a whole State may become loving, and from its courtesies, courteous; while from the ambition and perverseness of the one man the whole State may be thrown into rebellious disorder. Such is the nature of influence.
-
Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws.