Mencius

All men have a mind which cannot bear to see the suffering of others.

When Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.

A man must not be without shame. The shame of being without shame is the shame of being without shame indeed.

To nourish the heart, there is nothing better than to make the desires few.

If you let people follow their feelings, they will be able to do good. This is what is meant by saying that human nature is good.

The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.

He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature. Knowing his nature, he knows Heaven.

If a man does not love his parents, he is not a man. If he does not respect his elders, he is not a man.

Benevolence is man's mind, and righteousness is man's path.

Fish is what I like; bear's paw is also what I like. If I cannot have both, I will let go the fish and take the bear's paw. Life is what I like; righteousness is also what I like. If I cannot have both, I will let go life and take righteousness.

The disease of men is this: that they neglect their own field, and go to cultivate the fields of others.

The trees on Ox Mountain were once beautiful. But because they were close to a large city, they were felled by axes. How could they remain beautiful? Yet, even so, the sprouting branches and leaves would grow again in the morning dew. But cattle and sheep grazed there, and so it became barren. When people see it barren, they think it never had trees. Is this the true nature of the mountain? And is it the true nature of man that he has no benevolent mind?

To act without knowing why, and to follow without knowing whither, is the common way of men.

The root of the empire is in the state; the root of the state is in the family; the root of the family is in the person of its head.

There are three things which are universally acknowledged to be honorable: nobility, age, and virtue.

The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of benevolence; the feeling of shame and dislike is the beginning of righteousness; the feeling of deference and compliance is the beginning of propriety; the feeling of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Men have these four beginnings just as they have their four limbs.

If you would rule the world, you must first rule yourself.

What is the difference between a man and a beast? Very little. The common man loses it; the superior man preserves it.

He who is without compassion is not a man.

The great man does not think beforehand of his words that they shall be sincere, nor of his actions that they shall be resolute; he simply speaks and acts as he finds it right.