The sole concern of learning is to seek one’s original heart.
—Mencius
Topics: Learning
Friendship is one mind in two bodies.
—Mencius
Topics: Friendship, Friends
If you love men and they are unfriendly, look into your love; if you rule men and they are unruly, look into your wisdom; if you are courteous to them and they do not respond, look into your courtesy. If what you do is vain, always seek within.
—Mencius
Topics: Self-Discovery
Truth uttered before its time is dangerous.
—Mencius
Topics: Thought, Reason, Truth, Danger
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
Topics: Decision
All things are already complete in us. There is no greater delight than to be conscious of right within us. If one strives to treat others as he would be treated by them, he shall not fail to come near the perfect life.
—Mencius
Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.
—Mencius
Topics: Kindness, Reputation
Great is the man who has not lost his childlike heart.
—Mencius
Topics: Living
If you know that a thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it—why wait till next year?
—Mencius
Topics: Evil
Charity is in the heart of man, and righteousness in the path of men. Pity the man who has lost his path and does not follow it and who has lost his heart and does not know how to recover it. When people’s dogs and chicks are lost they go out and look for them and yet the people who have lost their hearts do not go out and look for them. The principle of self-cultivation consists in nothing but trying to look for the lost heart.
—Mencius
Topics: Heart
There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination.
—Mencius
Topics: Sincerity
The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote.—The work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.
—Mencius
Topics: Duty
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
Topics: Truth
The great man is he who does not lose his child’s-heart.
—Mencius
Topics: Heart, Passion, Greatness, Enthusiasm, Inner-child
A great man is he who has not lost the heart of a child.
—Mencius
The great man is he who does not lose his child-heart. He does not think beforehand that his words shall be sincere, nor that his acts shall be resolute; he simply abides in the right.
—Mencius
Topics: Men
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Jacques Derrida French Philosopher, Literary Theorist
- John Rawls American Philosopher
- Emanuel Swedenborg Swedish Mystic, Theologian, Scientist
- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach German Philosopher
- Zeno of Citium Greek Philosopher
- Jeremy Bentham British Philosopher, Economist
- Hans-Georg Gadamer German Philosopher
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz German Philosopher, Mathematician
- Charles Sanders Peirce American Philosopher
- Jose Ortega y. Gasset Spanish Philosopher
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