Confucius May Quotations

When a man's knowledge is sufficient to attain, and his virtue is not sufficient to enable him to hold, whatever he may have gained, he will lose again.

Don't be concerned that you have no position; be concerned how you may fit yourself to occupy one. .

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

Never overlook wallflower at dance; may be dandelion in grass.

Tell people - and they may forget... show them - they may remember... but involve them and they will understand.

A superior man may be made to go to the well, but he cannot be made to go down into it. He may be imposed upon, but he cannot be fooled.

There may be men who act without understanding why. I do not. To listen much, pick out the good and follow it; to see much and ponder it: this comes next to understanding.

There are some with whom we may study in common, but we shall find them unable to go along with us to principles. Perhaps we may go on with them to principles, but we shall find them unable to get established in those along with us. Or if we may get so established along with them, we shall find them unable to weigh occurring events along with us.

A man may not transgress the bounds of major morals, but may make errors in minor morals.

The commander of the forces of a large State may be carried off, but the will of even a common man cannot be taken from him.

Men of principle are sure to be bold, but those who are bold may not always be men of principle.

The way of Heaven and Earth may be completely declared in one sentence: They are without any doubleness, and so they produce things in a manner that is unfathomable.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

He who remembers from day to day what he has yet to learn, and from month to month what he has learned already, may be said to have a love of learning.

The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come.

A blemish may be removed from a diamond by careful polishing, but evil words once spoken cannot be effaced.

What Heaven has conferred is called The Nature; an accordance with this nature is called The Path of duty; the regulation of this path is called Instruction. The path may not be left for an instant. If it could be left, it would not be the path.

In the Book of Poetry there are three hundred poems, but the meaning of all of them may be put in a single sentence: Have no debasing thoughts.

The people may be put into the way they should go, though they may not be put into the way of understanding it.

Be versed in ancient lore, and familiarize yourself with the modern; then may you become teachers.

To err and not reform, this may indeed be called error.

From the loving example of one family a whole State may become loving, and from its courtesies, courteous; while from the ambition and perverseness of the one man the whole State may be thrown into rebellious disorder. Such is the nature of influence.

Some may study side by side, and yet be asunder when they come to the logic of things.

Think no vice so small that you may commit it, and no virtue so small that you may over look it.

If the search for riches were sure to be successful, though I should become a groom with a whip in my hand to get them, I will do so. As the search may not be successful, I will follow after that which I love.

The superior man, extensively studying all learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety, may thus likewise not overstep what is right.

Excessive (population) growth may reduce output per worker, repress levels of living for the masses and engender strife

There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life -reciprocity.