Mencius Quotes
A Chinese philosopher who was arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself.
(371 BC - 289 BC)
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A real man is he whose goodness is a part of himself.
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Every duty is a charge, but the charge of oneself is the root of all others.
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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.
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Friends are the siblings God never gave us.
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Friendship is one mind in two bodies.
[Bodies]
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Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue, and does not admit of assumptions of superiority.
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Great is the man who has not lost his childlike heart.
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He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.
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He who respects others is respected by them.
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He whose goodness is part of himself, is what is called a real man.
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Human nature is good, just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good, just as there is no water that does not flow downward.
[Human Nature]
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If the king loves music, there is little wrong in the land.
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If the prince of a State loves benevolence, he will have no opponent in all the empire.
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In abundance prepare for scarcity.
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Incessant falls teach men to reform, and distress rouses their strength. Life springs from calamity, and death from ease.
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It is not difficult to govern. All one has to do is not to offend the noble families.
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Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.
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Let men decide firmly what they will not do, and they will be free to do vigorously what they ought to do.
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Let not a man do what his sense of right bids him not to do, nor desire what it forbids him to desire. This is sufficient. The skillful artist will not alter his measures for the sake of a stupid workman.
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Mankind fears an evil man but heaven does not.
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