Top 917 Quotes & Sayings by Confucius - Page 14

A gentleman considers what is right; the vulgar consider what will pay.

At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.

A father's and a mother's age must be borne in mind; with joy on the one hand, fear on the other.

Love makes a spot beautiful: who chooses not to dwell in love, has he got wisdom?

He who needs only coarse food, water and drink, and as pillow his folded arms will find happiness without further search.

There is the love of knowing without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to dissipation of mind.

People with virtue must speak out; People who speak are not all virtuous.

Do not unto another that you would hot have him do unto you. Thou needest this law alone. It is the foundation of all the rest.

When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.

Reviewing the day's lessons. Isn't it joyful? Friends come from far. Isn't it delightful? One has never been angry at other's misunderstanding. Isn't he a respectable man?

Justice for All in the World

If you know, say you know. If you don't know, say you don't know.

What can a man do with music who is not benevolent?

While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve spirits of the dead...While you do not know life, how can you know about death

The Master said, I set my heart on the Way, base myself on virtue, lean upon benevolence for support and take my recreation in the arts.

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.

The young should be dutiful at home, modest abroad, careful and true, overflowing in kindness for all, but in brotherhood with love. And if they have strength to spare they should spend it on the arts.

To be in one's own heart in kindly sympathy with all things; this is the nature of righteousness

A good man does not make a warrior, just as good steel does not go for nails.

Faithfulness and sincerity first of all.

An inch of time on the sundial is worth more than a foot of jade.

Acquire new knowledge whilst thinking over the old, and you may become a teacher of others.

Thought, unassisted by learning, is dangerous.

If I am virtuous and worthy, for whom should I not maintain a proper concern?

By the ruler's cultivation of his own character there is set up the example of the course which all should pursue.

Care not for want of place; care for thy readiness to fill one. Care not for being unknown, but seek to be worthy of note.

In dealing with the dead, if we treat them as if they were entirely dead, that would show a want of affection and should not be done; or, if we treat them as if they were entirely alive, that would show a want of wisdom and should not be done.

Of neighborhoods, benevolence is the most beautiful. How can the man be considered wise who when he had the choice does not settle in benevolence.

Though Confucius served the Duke of Lu, a Chinese state, he made many enemies with the nobles of the land. His views antagonized the powerful nobles, who wanted the Duke to be a puppet in their hands. Confucius was exiled from the State of Lu for more than two decades. He lived in the countryside, spreading his teachings.

If an urn lacks the characteristics of an urn, how can we call it an urn?

With a heavy load and a long journey

In your promises cleave to what is right, And you will be able to fulfill your word.

Good is no hermit. It has ever neighbors.

Many seek happiness higher than men; others beneath him. But happiness is the same height as man.

I saw some piglets suckling their dead mother. After a short while they shuddered and went away. They had sensed that she could no longer see them and that she wasn't like them any more. What they loved in their mother wasn't her body, but whatever it was that made her body live.

The wise man delights in water, the Good man delights in mountains. For the wise move; but the Good stay still. The wise are happy; but the good secure.

The demands that good people make are upon themselves; Those that bad people make are upon others.

The rich fool is like a pig that is choked by its own fat.

Excess weakens the spirits.

Baseball is wrong, man with four balls cannot walk

The strongest memory is not as strong as the weakest ink.

You will never know how sharp a sword is unless it's drawn from its sheath

Let every man consider virtue as what devolves on himself. He may not yield the performance of it even to his teacher.

I am not concerned that I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be known.

Is any one able for one day to apply his strength to virtue? I have not seen the case in which his strength would be sufficient.

In the Book of Poetry there are three hundred poems, but the meaning of all of them may be put in a single sentence: Have no debasing thoughts.

Slater soaks into the mind as water into low and marshy places, where it becomes stagnant and offensive.

Be faithful and true of word; let thy walk be plain and lowly: thou wilt get on, though in savage land. If thy words be not faithful and true, thy walk plain and lowly, wilt thou get on, though in thine own home? Standing, see these words ranged before thee; driving, see them written upon the yoke. Then thou wilt get on.

Among the appliances to transform the people, sound and appearances are but trivial influences.

Straight-forwardness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness.

Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you.

The good man does not grieve that other people do not recognize his merits. His only anxiety is lest he should fail to recognize theirs.

Labor, but slight not meditation; meditate, but slight not labor.

All things are already complete in oneself.

Let mourning stop when one's grief is fully expressed.

Humankind differs from the animals only by a little and most people throw that away.

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.

I have not seen one who loves virtue as he loves beauty.

Virtue is not solitary; it is bound to have neighbors

Man is born with uprightness. If one loses it, he will be lucky if he escapes with his life.