Quotes from Confucius

Sincerity is the way of heaven.

He who keeps danger in mind, is he who will rest safe in his seat; he who keeps ruin in mind, is he who will preserve his interests secure.

Love should start from people close to us, then be extended to other people, to strangers, and eventually to the world

If you don't know how to live, why wonder about death?

Of all that Heaven produces and nourishes, there is none so great as man.

To govern is to correct. If you set an example by being correct, who would dare to remain incorrect?

It is only the very wisest and the very stupidest who never change.

If you would govern a state of a thousand chariots (a small-to-middle-size state), you must pay strict attention to business, be true to your word, be economical in expenditure and love the people.

When superiors are fond of showing their humanity, inferiors try to outstrip one another in their practice of it.

The people may be made to follow a path of action but they may not be made to understand it.

Learn, as if never overtaking your object, and yet as if apprehensive of losing it.

He who merely knows right principles is not equal to him who loves them.

He who works for his own interests will arouse much animosity

There is the love of knowing without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to dissipation of mind.

To know it is not as good as to love it, and to love it is not as good as to take delight in it.

There is good government when those who are near are made happy, and when those who are afar are attracted.

Worry not that no one knows you; seek to be worth knowing.

Heaven begat Virtue in me; what can man do unto me?

A disciple having asked for a definition of charity, the Master said LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

A gentleman would be ashamed should his deeds not match his words.

Study the past, if you would divine the future.

A lion chased me up a tree, and I greatly enjoyed the view from the top.

The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the center of a very large tree.

Heaven, in the production of things, is sure to be bountiful to them, according to their qualities. Hence the tree that is flourishing, it nourishes, while that which is ready to fall, it overthrows.