Mencius
friendship mind body
“Friendship is one mind in two bodies.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
great man child heart
“The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
limitation morality great things
“Only when there are things a man will not do is he capable of doing great things.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
truth way road evil seek
“The way of truth is like a great road. It is not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will not seek it.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
food clothes leisure learning animal
“Filling with food,
Warming with clothes,
Living leisurely without learning,
It is little short of animals.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
distress inability problem do
“People are distressed by their inability to do it. The problem, however, is simply that they don't do it.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
adversity integrity wisdom skill intelligence
“Integrity, wisdom, skill, intelligence – such things are forged in adversity.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
people good evil choices precious worthless great small nurture
“There’s only one way to know if people are good or evil: look at the choices they make. We each contain precious and worthless, great and small. Never injure the great for the sake of the small, or the precious for the sake of the worthless. Small people nurture what is small in them; great people nurture what is great in them.”
learning abundant precision essential
“Make your learning abundant and speak of it with precision, then you will speak of essentials.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
humanity treat others self
“Treat others as you would be treated. Devote yourself to that, for there’s no more direct approach to Humanity.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
do done desire precept
“Don’t do what should not be done, and don’t desire what should not be desired. Abide by this one precept, and everything else will follow.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
digging well water abandoned work
“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.”
— Mencius (372-289BC)
disease men neglect own field weedothers
"The disease of men is that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others."
— Mencius (372-289BC)
act understanding habit understanding path life lead multitude
"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."
— Mencius (372-289BC)
book believe authority
"One who believes all of a book would be better off without books."
— Mencius (372-289BC)
feeling right wrong wisdom
"The feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom."
— Mencius (372-289BC)
men decision do not vigor ought
"Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do."
— Mencius (372-289BC)
life righteousness together
"So I like life and I like righteousness; if I cannot keep the two together, I will let life go and choose righteousness."
— Mencius (372-289BC)
evil good negative
"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."
— Mencius (372-289BC)
abundance scarcity
"In abundance prepare for scarcity."
— Mencius (372-289BC)