Mencius Quotes

Sincerity is the way to Heaven.

Human-heartedness is man's mind. Righteousness is man's path. How sad that he abandons that path and does not rely on it; that he loses that mind and does not know to seek it. When a man has lost a cock or a dog, he knows to seek it, but having lost his (proper) mind, he does not know to seek it. The Way of Learning is nothing other than seeking the lost mind

Make your learning abundant and speak of it with precision, then you will speak of essentials.

All beneath Heaven is rooted in nation. Nation is rooted in family. And family is rooted in self.

Treat others as you would be treated. Devote yourself to that, for there’s no more direct approach to Humanity.

For nurturing the mind, there’s nothing like paring your desires away to a very few. If you have few desires, there may still be some capricious whims in your mind, but they’ll be few. If you have many desires, there may be some enduring principles in your mind, but they’ll be few indeed.

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.

Words that defy reality are ominous. And it’s ominous reality that confronts those who would obscure the wise and worthy.

Getting something done is like digging a well. You can dig a well seventy feet deep, but if you don’t hit water it’s just an abandoned well.

All the children who are held and loved...will know how to love others. Spread these virtues in the world. Nothing more need be done.

Friends are the siblings God never gave us

Words that speak of things close at hand and carry far-reaching implications – those are the good words.

Great is the man who has not lost his childlike heart.

The heart of compassion is the germ of benevolence; the heart of shame, of dutifulness; the heart of courtesy and modesty, of observance of the rites; the heart of right and wrong, of wisdom. Man has these four germs just as he has four limbs. For a man possessing these four germs to deny his own potentialities is for him to cripple himself.

There are people dying from famine on the roads, and you do not issue the stores of your granaries for them. When people die, you say, 'it is not owing to me, it is owing to the year.' In what does this differ from stabbing a man and killing him, and then saying, 'it was not I, it was the weapon?