Quotes from Confucius

Wisdom, humanity & courage, these three are universal virtues. The way by which they are practiced are one.

True wisdom is knowing what you don't know

For one word a man is often deemed to be wise, and for one word he is often deemed to be foolish. We should be careful indeed what we say.

Know what you know and know that you don't know what you don't know — that is the characteristic of one who knows.

Wisdom is worried for being slow in its speech and expeditious in its actions.

Love makes a spot beautiful: who chooses not to dwell in love, has he got wisdom?

Not too isolated, not too many relationships, the middle, that's wisdom.

To know that one knows what one knows, and to know that one doesn't know what one doesn't know, there lies true wisdom.

To give oneself ernestly to securing righteousness and justice among the people, and while respecting the gods and demons, to keep aloof from them, that may be called wisdom.

A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.

A man is great not because he hasn't failed; a man is great because failure hasn't stopped him.

Of course you want to be rich and famous. It's natural. Wealth and fame are what every man desires. The question is: What are you willing to trade for it?

I was complaining that I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet.

A man without a mustache is a man without a soul.

Man is born with uprightness. If one loses it, he will be lucky if he escapes with his life.

In archery we have something like the way of the superior man. When the archer misses the center of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure in himself.

A man who lacks reliability is utterly useless.

A wise man has dignity without pride; a fool has pride without dignity.

A good man regards the root; he fixes the root, and ail else flows out of it. The root is filial piety; the fruit brotherly love.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

Great is the man who can overcome the world, but greater still is the man who can overcome himself, for he will have the world spinning on the palm of his hand.

The superior man... does not set his mind either for or against anything, he will pursue whatever is right. The superior man thinks of virtue, the common man of comfort.

A fool despises good counsel, but a wise man takes it to heart.

The superior man loves his soul; the inferior man loves his property.