Mencius Quotes

A man must not be without shame, for the shame of being without shame is shamelessness indeed.

~ Mencius

Words that speak of things close at hand and carry far-reaching implications – those are the good words.

~ Mencius

Words that defy reality are ominous. And it’s ominous reality that confronts those who would obscure the wise and worthy.

~ Mencius

Only when there are things a man will not do is he capable of doing great things.

~ Mencius

There’s only one way to know if people are good or evil: look at the choices they make. We each contain precious and worthless, great and small. Never injure the great for the sake of the small, or the precious for the sake of the worthless. Small people nurture what is small in them; great people nurture what is great in them.

~ Mencius

Integrity, wisdom, skill, intelligence – such things are forged in adversity.

~ Mencius

There are people dying from famine on the roads, and you do not issue the stores of your granaries for them. When people die, you say, 'it is not owing to me, it is owing to the year.' In what does this differ from stabbing a man and killing him, and then saying, 'it was not I, it was the weapon?

~ Mencius

For nurturing the mind, there’s nothing like paring your desires away to a very few. If you have few desires, there may still be some capricious whims in your mind, but they’ll be few. If you have many desires, there may be some enduring principles in your mind, but they’ll be few indeed.

~ Mencius

If someone stops where they should not, they’ll stop anywhere. If someone slights a person they should treat generously, they’ll slight anyone. And if someone races ahead, they retreat in a hurry.

~ Mencius

There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination.

~ Mencius

The root of the kingdom 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.

~ Mencius

Friends are the siblings God never gave us.

~ Mencius

Friendship is one mind in two bodies.

~ Mencius

Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue.

~ Mencius

Secure property in hand leads to peace in mind.

~ Mencius

Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.

~ Mencius