Mencius Quotes

As for the people, if they lack a constant livelihood, it follows that they will lack a constant heart. No one who lacks a constant heart will avoid dissipation and evil. When they thereupon sink into crime, to go and punish the people is to trap them.

I understand what lies hidden beneath beguiling words. I understand the trap beneath extravagant words. I understand the deceit beneath depraved words. And I understand the weariness beneath evasive words.

If others do not respond to your love with love, look into your own benevolence; if others fail to respond to your attempts to govern them with order, look into your own respect. In other words, look into yourself whenever you fail to achieve your purpose. When you are correct in your person, the Empire will turn to you.

They who accord with Heaven are preserved, and they who rebel against Heaven perish.

Mohists aimed at impartial consequences rather than individual self-interest. But Mengzi argues that this practice is self-undermining: aiming directly at profit is, paradoxically, unprofitable.

With melted snow I boil fragrant tea.

The king was standing by the pond, gazing at the geese and deer, and said, “Do the worthy also delight in these things?” [2.2] Mengzi replied, “Only the worthy delight in these things. Those who are not worthy, even if they have these things, do not delight in them.

So it is that whenever Heaven invests a person with great responsibilities, it first tries his resolve, exhausts his muscles and bones, starves his body, leaves him destitute, and confound his every endeavor. In this way his patience and endurance are developed, and his weaknesses are overcome. We change and grow only when we make mistakes. We realize what to do only when we work through worry and confusion. And we gain people’s trust and understanding only when our inner thoughts are revealed clearly in our faces and words.

They agree with the current customs. They consent with an impure age. Their principles have a semblance of right-heartedness and truth. Their conduct has a semblance of disinterestedness and purity. All men are pleased with them, and they think themselves right, but you cannot enter into the Way of Yao and Shun with them. For this reason they are called “The thieves of virtue.

That's like climbing a tree to find a fish.

Cố thiên tương giáng đại nhiệm ư thị nhân dã, tất tiên khổ kỳ tâm chí, lao kỳ gân cốt, ngạ kỳ thể phu...

The Way of learning and inquiry is no other than to seek for one's lost heart.

Friends are the siblings God never gave us.

Friendship is one mind in two bodies.

Je lepší nemít žádné knihy, než věřit všemu, co je v nich napsáno.