Mencius

Mencius was arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself. He was an itinerant Chinese philosopher and sage, and one of the principal interpreters of Confucianism. Like Confucius, according to legend, he travelled China for forty years to offer advice to rulers for reform.

He expressed his filial devotion when he took an absence of three years from his official duties for Qi to mourn his mother's death.

Disappointed at his failure to effect changes in his contemporary world, he retired from public life.

- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quotes by Mencius

Let not a man do what his sense of right bids him not to do, nor desire what it forbids him to desire. This is sufficient. The skilful artist will not alter his measures for the sake of a stupid workman.

Evil exists to glorify the good. Evil is negative good. It is a relative term. Evil can be transmuted into good. What is evil to one at one time, becomes good at another time to somebody else.

He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.

Let men decide firmly what they will not do, and they will be free to do vigorously what they ought to do.

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

If the king loves music, there is little wrong in the land.

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

Truth uttered before its time is always dangerous.

Friends are the siblings God never gave us.

We live, not as we wish to, but as we can.

Friendship is one mind in two bodies.