Quotes About Confucius

The original Confucian intention, as envisioned by Confucius and Mencius is, simply put, to cultivate ourselves and bring peace and comfort to others.

Confucius did not accept the status quo, which held that wealth and power spoke the loudest. He felt that virtue, both as a personal quality and as a requirement for leadership, was essential for individual dignity, communal solidarity, and political order.

Confucius was a humanist and an agnostic.

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

What most distinguishes Confucius from other founders is that he inculcated a strict code of ethics, which has been respected ever since, but associated with very little religious dogma, which gave place to complete theological scepticism in the countless generations of Chinese literati who revered his memory and administered the Empire.

To Confucius, harmony was consensus, not conformity. It required loyal opposition.

Confucius said, "People may have the finest talents, but if they are arrogant and stingy, their other qualities are not worthy of consideration.

When the head of state of family thinks first of gouging out an income, he must perforce do it through small men; and even if they are clever at their job, if one employ such inferior characters in state and family business the tilled fields will go rack swamp and ruin and edged calamities will mount up to the full.... This is the meaning of: A state does not profit by profits - Pound's translation of Confucius

I didn't learn Chinese to write 'Confucius.' That would've been a monumental task. I have three friends who can translate Chinese text for me; all three helped me with my research on Confucius. They are acknowledged in my acknowledgements in the book.

Who was Confucius? His real name was Kong Qiu, and he was the extramarital child of an impoverished seventy-year-old aristocrat and his sixteen-year-old concubine. The boy was born 551 years before Christ, and half a century before Rome became a republic.

Make faithfulness and truth thy masters: have no friends unlike thyself: be not ashamed to mend thy faults.

Confucius say, man with hand in pocket feel cocky all day

Entitled 'My Country and Its Appeal', she commented on China's cultural icon Confucius: 'His grossest mistake was the failure to regard womankind with due respect. We learn from observation that no nation can rise to distinction unless her women are educated and considered as man's equal morally, socially, and intellectually … China's progress must come largely through her educated women.

Confucius said: "A man who is really wise knows what he knows and also knows what he does not know.

Chinese dragons are considered benevolent, much like ruler to subject, as long as the people were loyal to them. This is a Confucius principle. Japanese dragons, however, were believed to kill innocent people to force villages to give their maidens to them as food. - Kailin Gow On the Dragon King in Amazon Lee Adventures in China (Discussion Question)

When Confucius was asked about death, he replied: "We do not yet understand life how could we possibly understand death?" Analogously, when asked questions about death, Zen masters are likely to turn the questioner's attention back to life.

Confucius said,—"If a State is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a State is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are the subjects of shame.

Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

Confucius - or Kongzi, which means Master Kong - was not born to power, but his idiosyncrasies and ideas made him the Zelig of the Chinese classics.

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches civilisation.

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches a civilisation.

The superior man is distressed by his want (lack) of ability

If we find ourselves tempted to celebrate one approach over the other, we should remember the caution of the Chinese sage Confucius, who told his followers, "Study without thinking and you are blind; think without studying and you are in danger."       Formal

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practice with vigor is near to benevolence; and to be conscious of shame is near to fortitude.