Quotes from Confucius

When a person should be spoken with, and you don't speak with them, you lose them. When a person shouldn't be spoken with and you speak to them, you waste your breath. The wise do not lose people, nor do they waste their breath.

Act with kindness but do not expect gratitude.

I followed my heart without breaking any rules.

Learning without thinking is useless. Thinking without learning is dangerous.

The demands that good people make are upon themselves; Those that bad people make are upon others.

The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

All people are the same; only their habits differ.

If there were an honorable way to get rich, I'd do it, even if it meant being a stooge standing around with a whip. But there isn't an honorable way, so I just do what I like.

Not to discuss with a man worthy of conversation is to waste the man. To discuss with a man not worthy of conversation is to waste words. The wise waste neither men nor words.

Humankind differs from the animals only by a little and most people throw that away.

Tsze-Kung asked, "Is there one word with which to act in accordance throughout a lifetime?" The Master said, "Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.

Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness

A superior man in dealing with the world is not for anything or against anything. He follows righteousness as the standard.

If you expect great things of yourself and demand little of others, you'll keep resentment far away.

If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things.

The expectations of life depend upon diligence the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.

As the water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it, so a wise man adapts himself to circumstances.

Writing cannot express all words, words cannot encompass all ideas.

The cautious seldom err.

It is when those who are not strong enough have made some moderate amount of progress that they fail and give up...

A man without persistence will never make a good shaman or a good physician.

It is only when mosquito land on your balls that you realize there is a way to solve problems without using violence.

I used to take on trust a man's deeds after having listened to his words. Now having listened to a man's words I go on to observe his deeds.