Mencius Quotes

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Heaven means to be one with God.

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.

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.

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

Friends are the siblings God never gave us.

Truth uttered before its time is dangerous.

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

In abundance prepare for scarcity.

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

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.

Secure property in hand leads to peace in mind.

He who loves others is always loved by them, and he who respects others is always respected by them.

Benevolence is one of the distinguishing characters of man.

The Tao is near and people seek it far away.

Listen to a man's words and look at the pupil of his eye. How can a man conceal his character?

Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue, and does not admit of assumptions of superiority.

A small country cannot contend with a great; the few cannot contend with the many; the weak cannot contend with the strong