Mencius Quotes

When Heaven is about to confer a great office on a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil ; it exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty ; it confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.

Friendship is one mind in two bodies.

The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.

Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence

If you know the point of balance, You can settle the details. If you can settle the details, You can stop running around. Your mind will become calm. If your mind becomes calm, You can think in front of a tiger. If you can think in front of a tiger, You will surely succeed.

The disease of men is that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others.

To act without clear understanding, to form habits without investigation, to follow a path all one's life without knowing where it really leads; such is the behavior of the multitude.

Charity is in the heart of man, and righteousness in the path of men. Pity the man who has lost his path and does not follow it and who has lost his heart and does not know how to recover it. When people's dogs and chicks are lost they go out and look for them and yet the people who have lost their hearts do not go out and look for them. The principle of self-cultivation consists in nothing but trying to look for the lost heart.

There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination.

The best things in life come in threes, like friends, dreams, and memories.

Sincerity is the way to heaven.

The fruit of humanity is devotion to one's parents. The fruit of righteousness is to respect one's elders. The fruit of wisdom is to understand these two and not to betray them. The fruit of propriety is to regulate and polish them. The fruit of music is the joy that comes from rejoicing in them. When one rejoices in them, they grow. When they grow, how can they be stopped? And when they cannot be stopped, unconsciously one's feet begin to dance and one's arms begin to wave.

People are eager to comment on something when they themselves are not in the situation of doing it.

He who loves others is constantly loved by them. He who respects others is constantly respected by them.

There is a power in everything; it is the job of the artist to determine it and express it.

The feeling of compassion is the beginning of humanity.

Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.

If you let people follow their feelings, they will be able to do good. This is what is meant by saying that human nature is good.

One who believes all of a book would be better off without books

So I like life and I like righteousness; if I cannot keep the two together, I will let life go and choose righteousness.

If the King loves music, it is well with the land.

Only when someone refuses to do certain things will he be capable of doing great things.

The feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom.

Never lose your child's heart.

The sole concern of learning is to seek one's original heart.

If you love men and they are unfriendly, look into your love; if you rule men and they are unruly, look into your wisdom; if you are courteous to them and they do not respond, look into your courtesy. If what you do is vain, always seek within.

Evil exists to glorify the good. Evil is negative good. It is a relative term. Evil can be transmuted into good. What is evil to one at one time, becomes good at another time to somebody else.

Where it is permissible both to die and not to die, it is an abuse of valour to die.

I dislike death, however, there are some things I dislike more than death. Therefore, there are times when I will not avoid danger.

The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity; the feeling of shame and dislike is the beginning of righteousness; the feeling of deference and compliance is the beginning of propriety; and the feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom.Men have these Four Beginnings just as they have their four limbs. Having these Four Beginnings, but saying that they cannot develop them is to destroy themselves.

Sincerity is the way to heaven; to think how to be sincere is the way of man.

He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature.

Only those who develop their minds and spirits to the utmost can serve Heaven and fulfill their own destinies.

The way of truth is like a great highway. It is not hard to find.

When Heaven is about to confer a great office upon you, it first exercises your mind with suffering and your sinews and bones with toil.

The great person never loses a childlike spirit.

A man must first despise himself, and then others will despise him.

A great man is one who has not lost the child's heart.

He who goes to the bottom of his own heart knows his own nature; And knowing his own nature, he knows heaven.

Treat your elders as elders, and extend it to the elders of others; treat your young ones as young ones, and extend it to the young ones of others; then you can turn the whole world in the palm of your hand

When the men of antiquity realized their wishes, benefits were conferred by them on the people. If they did not realize their wishes, they cultivated their personal character, and became illustrious in the world. If poor, they attended to their own virtue in solitude; if advanced to dignity, they made the whole empire virtuous as well.

He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.

The gap between enthusiasm and indifference is filled with failures. The great man is he that does not lose his child's heart.

Truth uttered before its time is dangerous.

Friends are the siblings God never gave us.

In abundance prepare for scarcity.

A real man is he whose goodness is a part of himself.

It is not difficult to govern. All one has to do is not to offend the noble families.

He who wishes to be benevolent will not be rich.

Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.