Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Mencius (Chinese Philosopher, Sage)

Mencius (c.371–c.289 BCE,) properly Mengzi or Meng-Tzŭ (Master Meng,) was a Chinese philosopher and one of the most important early Confucian thinkers. His central doctrines were that rulers should provide for the welfare of the people and that human nature is intrinsically good.

Born in Shandong (Shantung) of aristocratic ancestry, Mencius lived in the Warring States period (475—221 BCE,) during which China was divided into different states with their own rulers, often waging war against each other. He traveled from state to state to persuade rulers to the teachings of Confucius and founded a school to promote their study.

Mencius’s colloquies with various provincial rulers, his disciples, and others are recorded in a book of sayings. His pupils compiled the collection as the Book of Mengzi, one of the Four Books in the canonical writings of Confucianism. The text was subsequently edited and shortened by the scholar Zhao Qi in the second century CE. This version formed the basis of primary and secondary education in imperial China from the 14th century; it is this version of Mencius that is available today.

Mencius’s ethical system was based on the conviction that human beings were innately and instinctively good but required the proper conditions and support for moral growth. He emphasized the cardinal virtues of magnanimity, sense of duty, politeness, and wisdom.

Studies of Mencius’s life and philosophy include Sinologist D. C. Lau’s translation Mencius (1979) and Albert F. Verwilghen’s Mencius: The Man and His Ideas (1967.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Mencius

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

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