Quotations - Confucius

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Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.

Silence is a true friend who never betrays.

Attack the evil that is within yourself, rather than attacking the evil that is in others.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.

Do unto others what you want done unto you.

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.

To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

Time flows away like the water in the river.

To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

Consideration for others is the basis of a good life, a good society.

Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.

Have no friends not equal to yourself.

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.

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.”

The Master said, “A true gentleman is one who has set his heart upon the Way. A fellow who is ashamed merely of shabby clothing or modest meals is not even worth conversing with.

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.

The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting.

Settle one difficulty, and you keep a hundred away.

The Master said, “If your conduct is determined solely by considerations of profit you will arouse great resentment.”

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

Worry not that no one knows you; seek to be worth knowing.

Fix your mind on truth, hold firm to virtue, rely on loving kindness, and find your recreation in the Arts.

Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

Tea tempers the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the perceptive faculties.

If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer.

The Master said, “The gentleman understands what is right, whereas the petty man understands profit.”

If there were one word that could act as a standard of conduct for one's entire life, perhaps it would be 'thoughtfulness'.

The way of the superior person is threefold; virtuous, they are free from anxieties; wise they are free from perplexities; and bold they are free from fear.

He who will not economize will agonize.

I want you to be everything that's you, deep at the center of your being.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

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

A common man marvels at uncommon things. A wise man marvels at the commonplace.

Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.

The demands that good people make are upon themselves;

Those that bad people make are upon others.

He Who Knows And Knows That He Knows Is A Wise Man - Follow Him;

He Who Knows Not And Knows Not That He Knows Not Is A Fool - Shun Him.

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

I followed my heart without breaking any rules.

The Master said, At fifteen I set my heart upon learning.

At thirty, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground.

At forty, I no longer suffered from perplexities.

At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of Heaven.

At sixty, I heard them with docile ear.

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

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

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm.

The superior man has a dignified ease without pride. The mean man has pride without a dignified ease.

Things have their roots and branches. Affairs have their beginnings and their ends. To know what is first and what is last will lead one near the Way.

No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.

Never tire to study. And to teach to others.

The cautious seldom err.

For this reason the gentleman will employ a man on a distant mission and observe his degree of loyalty, will employ him close at hand and observe his degree of respect. He will hand him troublesome affairs and observe how well he manages them, will suddenly ask his advice and observe how wisely he answers. He will exact some difficult promise from him and see how well he keeps it, turn over funds to him and see with what benevolence he dispenses them, inform him of the danger he is in and note how faithful he is to his duties. He will get him drunk with wine and observe how well he handles himself, place him in mixed company and see what effect beauty has upon him. By applying these nine tests, you may determine who is the unworthy man.

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.

Return good for good; return evil with justice.

When the wise man points at the Moon, the idiot looks at the finger.

To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy.

The Master said, “To study, and then in a timely fashion to practice what you have learned—is this not satisfying? To have companions arrive from afar—is this not a joy? To remain unrecognized by others and yet remain free of resentment—is this not the mark of the gentleman?

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.

Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass.

A man should demand much from himself, but little from others. When you meet a man of worth, think how you may attain to his excellence. When you meet an unworthy one, then look within and examine yourself.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.

The Master said of Gong Yechang, “He is marriageable. Although he was once imprisoned and branded as a criminal, he was in fact innocent of any crime.” The Master gave him his daughter in marriage.

Act with kindness but do not expect gratitude.

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.

Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you.

Conduct thyself always with the same prudence as though thou went observed by ten eyes and pointed at by ten fingers.

Look at the means which a man employs, consider his motives, observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

The man who in view of gain thinks of righteousness; who in the view of danger is prepared to give up his life; and who does not forget an old agreement however far back it extends – such a man may be reckoned a complete man.

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

In all things success depends on previous preparation, and without such previous preparation there is sure to be failure.

If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.

The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous are long-lived.

The superior man examines his heart, that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause for dissatisfaction with himself.

The superior man honors his virtuous nature, and maintains constant inquiry and study, seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces, and to raise it to its greatest height and brilliancy.

The way of the superior man may be compared to what takes place in traveling, when to go to a distance we must first traverse the space that is near, and in ascending a height, when we must begin from the lower ground.

There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth … lust. When he is strong … quarrelsomeness. When he is old … covetousness.

When the Superior Man eats he does not try to stuff himself; at rest he does not seek perfect comfort; he is diligent in his work and careful in speech.

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

The object of the superior man is truth.

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

The virtuous man is driven by responsibility, the non-virtuous man is driven by profit.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

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The following are excerpted from The analects of Confucius translated and annotated by Arthur Waley

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A young man’s duty is to behave well to his parents at home and to his elders abroad, to be cautious in giving promises and punctual in keeping them, to have kindly feelings toward everyone, but seek the intimacy of the Good.

A country of a thousand war-chariots cannot be administered unless the ruler attends strictly to business, punctually observes his promises, is economical in expenditure, shows affection towards his subjects in general, and uses the labor of the peasantry only at the proper times of year (i.e. not when they ought to be working in the fields. Bad rulers, on the contrary, listen to music or go hunting when they ought to be attending to business, continually employ labor on ostentatious building schemes, etc.).

If a gentleman is frivolous, he will lose the respect of his inferiors and lack firm ground upon which to build up his education. First and foremost he must learn to be faithful to his superiors, to keep promises, to refuse the friendship of all who are not like him (i.e. of those who still reckon in terms of ‘profit and loss’ and have not taken Goodness as their standard).

Look closely into his aims, observe the means by which he pursues them, discover what brings him content — and can the man’s real worth remain hidden from you, can it remain hidden from you?

A gentleman can see a question from all sides without bias. The small man is biased and can see a question only from one side.

He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

A gentleman who never goes on eating till he is sated, who does not demand comfort in his home, who is diligent in business and cautious in speech, who associates with those that possess the Way and thereby corrects his own faults — such a one may indeed be said to have a taste for learning.

Tzu-Ch’in said to Tzu-kung, When our Master arrives in a fresh country he always manages to find out about its policy (i.e. the secret, general maxims which inspire the ruler). Does he do this by asking questions, or do people tell him of their own accord? Tzu-kung said, Our Master gets things by being cordial, frank, courteous, temperate, deferential. That is our Master’s way of inquiring — a very different matter certainly, from the way enquires are generally made.

It is Goodness that gives to a neighborhood its beauty. One who is free to choose, yet does not prefer to dwell among the Good — how can he be accorded the name of wise?

Without Goodness a man

Cannot for long endure adversity,

Cannot for long enjoy prosperity,

The Good Man rests content with Goodness; he that is merely wise pursues Goodness in the belief that it pays to do so.

The gentleman does not mind not being in office; all he minds is whether he has qualities that entitle him to office; He does not mind failing to get recognition; he is too busy doing things that entitle him to recognition.

A gentleman takes as much trouble to discover what is right as lessor men take to discover what will pay.

In the presence of a good man, think all the time how you may learn to equal him. In the presence of a bad man, turn your gaze within!

A gentleman covets the reputation of being slow in word but prompt in deed.

The true gentleman is calm and at ease; the Small Man is fretful and ill at ease.

The Master’s manner was affable yet firm, commanding but not harsh, polite but easy.

There were four things that the Master wholly eschewed: he took nothing for granted, he was never over-positive, never obstinate, never egotistic.

The gentleman calls attention to the good points in others; he does not call attention to their defects. The small man does just the reverse.

Tzu-kung asked, saying, What would you feel about a man who was loved by all his fellow-villagers? The Master said, That is not enough. What would you feel about a man who was hated by all his fellow-villagers? The Master said, That is not enough. Best of all would be that the good people in his village loved him and the bad hated him.

The gentleman is dignified but never haughty; common people are haughty but never dignified.

Imperturbable, resolute, simple, slow to speak — such a one is near to Goodness.

He that is really Good is never unhappy, he that is really wise is never perplexed, he that is really brave is never afraid.

Is it the man who does not count beforehand upon the falsity of others nor reckon upon promises not being kept or he who is conscious beforehand of deceit that is the true sage?

The Master said, (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.

The Master said, If out of the three hundred Songs I had to take one phrase to cover all my teachings, I would say ‘Let there be no evil in your thoughts.’

The Master said, I can talk to Yen Hui a whole day without his ever differing from me. One would think he was stupid. But if I enquire into his private conduct when he is not with me I find that it fully demonstrates what I have taught him. No, Hui is by no means stupid.

The Master said, Yu, shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to recognize that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to recognize that you do not know it. That is knowledge.

Tzu-chang was studying the Song Han-lu. The Master said, Hear much, but maintain silence as regards doubtful points and be cautious in speaking about the rest; then you will seldom get into trouble. See much, but ignore what it is dangerous to have seen, and be cautious in acting upon the rest; then you will seldom want to undo your acts.

Duke Ai asked, What can I do in order to get the support of the common people? The master replied, If you raise up the straight and set them on top of the crooked, the commoners will support you. But if you raise up the crooked and set them on top of the straight, the commoners will not support you.

The Master says, I for my part, have never yet seen one who really cared for Goodness, nor one who really abhorred wickedness. One who really cared for Goodness would never let any other consideration come first. One who abhorred wickedness would be so constantly doing Good that wickedness would never have a chance to get at him. Has anyone ever managed to do Good with his whole might even for so long as the space of a single day? I think not. Yet I for my part have never seen anyone give up the attempt because he had not the strength to go on. It may well have happened, but I for my part have never seen it.

Someone said, Jan Yung is Good, but he is a poor talker. The Master said, What need has he to be a good talker? Those who down others with claptrap are seldom popular. Whether he is Good, I do not know. But I see no need for him to be a good talker.

The Master said, There was a time when I merely listened attentively to what people said, and took for granted that they would carry out their words. Now I am obliged not only to give ear to what they say, but to keep an eye on what they do.

Tzu-kung asked saying, Why was K’ung Wen Tzu called Wen (The Cultured)? The Master said, Because he was diligent and so fond of learning that he was not ashamed to pick up knowledge even from his inferiors.

Of Tzu-ch’an the Master said that in him were to be found four of the virtues that belong to the Way of the true gentleman. In his private conduct he was courteous, in serving his master he was punctilious, in providing for the needs of the people he gave them even more than their due; in extracting service from the people, he was just.

The master said, Yen P’ing Chung is a good example of what one’s intercourse with one’s fellow-men should be. However long he has known anyone he always maintains the same scrupulous courtesy.

The master said, He who seeks only coarse bread to eat, water to drink, and bent arm for a pillow will without looking for it find happiness to boot. Any thought of accepting wealth and rank by means that I know to be wrong is as remote from me as the clouds that float above.

The Duke of She’ asked Tzu-lu about Master K’ung (Confucius). Tzu-lu did not reply. The Master said, Why did you not say ‘This is the character of the man: so intent upon enlightening the eager that he forgets his hunger, and so happy in doing so, that he forgets the bitterness of his lot and does not realize that old age is at hand. That is what he is.’

The Master said, Even when walking in a party of no more than three I can be certain of learning from those I am with. There will be good qualities that I can select for imitation and bad ones that will teach me what requires correction in myself.

The Master said, A Divine Sage I cannot hope ever to meet; the most I can hope for is to meet a true gentleman. The Master said, A faultless man I cannot hope ever to meet; the most I can hope for is to meet a man of fixed principles. Yet where all around me I see Nothing pretending to be Something, Emptiness pretending to be Fullness, Penury pretending to be Affluence, even a man of fixed principles will be none too easy to find.

Tzu-chang asked about getting on with people. The Master said, Be loyal and true in your every word, serious and careful in all you do; and you will get on well enough, even though you find yourself among barbarians. But if you are disloyal and untrustworthy in your speech, frivolous and careless in your acts, even though you are among your own neighbors, how can you hope to get on well?

The Master said, Not to talk to one who could be talked to, is to waste a man. To talk to those who cannot be talked to, is to waste one’s words. He who is truly wise never wastes a man; but on the other hand, he never wastes his words.

The Master said, He who will not worry about what is far off will soon find something that is worse than worry close at hand.

The Master said, In vain have I looked for one whose desire to build up his moral power was as strong as his sexual desire.

The Master said, To demand much from oneself and little from others, is the way (for a ruler) to banish discontent.

Tzu-kung asked saying, Is there any single saying that one can act upon all day and every day? The Master said, Perhaps the saying about consideration: Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you.

The Master said, When everyone dislikes a man, enquiry is necessary; when everyone likes a man, enquiry is necessary.

Master K’ung said, There are three sorts of friend that are profitable, and three sorts that are harmful. Friendship with the upright, with the true-to-death, and those who have heard much is profitable. Friendship with the obsequious, friendship with those who are good at accommodating their principles, friendship with those who are clever at talk is harmful.

Master K’ung said, There are three sorts of pleasure that are profitable, and three sorts of pleasure that are harmful. The pleasure got from the due ordering of ritual and music, the pleasure got from discussing the good points in the conduct of others, the pleasure of having many wise friends is profitable. But pleasure got from profligate enjoyments, pleasure got from idle gadding about, pleasure got from comfort and ease is harmful.

Master K’ung said, There are three things against which a gentleman is on his guard. In his youth, before his blood and vital humours have settled down, he is on guard against lust. Having reached his prime, when the blood and vital humours have finally hardened, he is on guard against strife. Having reached old age, when the blood and vital humours are already decaying, he is on guard against avarice.

Master K’ung said, There are three things that a gentleman fears: he fears the will of Heaven, he fears great men, he fears the words of the Divine Sages. The small man does not know the will of Heaven and so does not fear it. He treats great men with contempt, and scoffs at the words of the Divine Sages.

Master K’ung said, Highest are those who are born wise. Next are those who become wise by learning. After them come those who have to toil painfully in order to acquire learning. Finally, to the lowest class of the common people belong those who toil painfully without ever managing to learn.

Master K’ung said, The gentleman has nine cares. In seeing he is careful to see clearly, in hearing he is careful to hear distinctly, in his looks he is careful to be kindly; in his manner to be respectful, in his words to be loyal, in his work to be diligent. When in doubt he is careful to ask for information; when angry he has a care for the consequences, and when he sees a chance of gain, he thinks carefully whether the pursuit of it would be consonant with the Right.

Tzu-chang asked Master K’ung about Goodness. Master K’ung said, He who could put the Five into practice everywhere under Heaven would be Good. Tzu-chang begged to hear what these were. The Master said, Courtesy, breadth, good faith, diligence and clemency. He who is courteous is not scorned, he who is broad wins the multitude, he who is of good faith is trusted by the people, he who is diligent succeeds in all he undertakes, he who is clement can get service from the people.

The Master said, Clever talk and a pretentious manner are seldom found in the Good.

The Master said, Women and people of low birth are very hard to deal with. If you are friendly with them, they get out of hand, and if you keep your distance they resent it.