Famous phrases of confucius, aphorisms and selected quotes from this great Chinese philosopher who, who lived between the sixth and fifth century before Christ, was the promoter of an ethical conception of man seen in its universality.
Quotes of Confucius
- Whoever returns to the old way to learn the new can be considered a master.
- Observe many things, discard those insecure and behave with great caution towards the remaining ones. You will thus be less likely to make mistakes.
- Don't worry that people don't know you, worry that maybe you don't deserve to be known.
- When you're in a mess, you might as well enjoy its flavor.
- Whichever direction you go, go with all your heart.
- The noble man emphasizes the good qualities of others, and does not accentuate the bad ones. The lower does the opposite.
- Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.
- When words lose their meaning people will lose their freedom.
- Wisdom compassion and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities.
- Human nature is good and evil is essentially unnatural.
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- Forget the offenses, never forget the courtesies.
- My house is very small, but its windows open onto a large and wonderful world.
- The greatest happiness is not in never falling, but in always recovering after a fall.
- The way cannot be left alone. If we could leave it, it would not be the way.
- Seeing and listening to the wicked is already the beginning of evil.
- The real gentleman is similar to an archer: if the target is missing, he looks for the cause in himself.
- Get away from the world, remain unknown and have no regrets: only the superior man can reach this.
- The wise man is informed about what is right. The lower man is informed of what he will pay.
- If you see the good in the next one, imitate it; if in the next you see evil, look inside.
- Study the past if you want to predict the future.
- What a vanity, wanting to penetrate the target when shooting with a bow. There will always be one stronger than you. The only thing that matters is the correctness of the gesture.
- Only the wisest or most stupid of men never change.
- Choose a job you love, and you won't have to work even one day in your life.
- There is evil in an evil intention, even if the act is not perpetrated.
- If there is a remedy why do you take it? And if there is no remedy why do you take it?
- It is difficult to be poor and not to have resentments, just as it is easy to be rich and not to be superb.
- If you see a hungry man, don't give him rice: teach him to grow it.
- Laziness walks so slowly that poverty does not make much effort to achieve it.
- The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best moment is now.
- No matter how far the spirit can go, it will never go further than the heart.
- Don't worry if others don't like you. Worry if you don't appreciate yourself.
- When two friends understand each other completely, the words are soft and strong like the scent of orchids.
- Don't do good if you can't stand ingratitude.
- It is at the coldest time of the year that the pine and cypress, last to lose their leaves, reveal their tenacity.
- It is better to light a small candle than to curse the darkness.
- Rare are those who prefer virtue to the pleasures of sex.
- Life is really very simple; but we insist on making it complicated.
- A man without a mustache is a man without a soul.
Confucius aphorisms
- Who knows all the answers ... ... didn't ask all the questions.
- The master said: Those who arrive at forty without being appreciated will never be appreciated again.
- I ask God for nothing but a house full of books and a garden full of flowers.
- The master said: Those who moderate themselves are rarely lost.
- You ask me why I buy rice and flowers? I buy rice to live and flowers to have a reason to live.
- The master said: the people can be induced to follow a cause, but not to understand it.
- The stars are holes in the sky from which the light of infinity filters.
- The superior man is modest in his words, but exceeds in his actions.
- Live as you were dying you would have lived.
- He who does not foresee distant things exposes himself to close unhappiness.
- He who asks is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask is a fool forever.
- The way of the superior person is threefold; the virtuous are free from anxieties; the sages are exempt from perplexity; and the daring are free from fear.
- The wise man demands the maximum from himself, man has recently expected everything from others.
- The balances, the resistant, the simple, and the modest are close to virtues.
- Do not avenge yourself, because after revenge comes repentance.
- If you don't know what life is, how can you know what death is?
- Better to keep silent and look stupid than to remove any doubt by speaking.
- Real knowledge is knowing the extent of one's ignorance.
- The errors of the superior man are similar to the eclipses of the sun and moon. Everyone notices it when he makes a mistake, and everyone admires it when he repents.
- If you don't respect sacred things, you have nothing to base your conduct on.
- There is no man who cannot drink or eat but, few are able to understand what it tastes like.
- Where there is education there is no class distinction.
- It doesn't matter if you move slowly, the important thing is that you don't stop.
- The improvement of one's self is the fundamental basis of all moral progress and development.
- Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
- It doesn't matter the color of the cat, it matters that I catch the mouse.
- The man who moves the mountains begins by taking away the smallest stones.
- The beginning of wisdom consists in calling things by their name.
- If you meet someone who is convinced that he knows everything and is sure he can do everything, you cannot go wrong: he is an imbecile.
- For a word a man is often judged wise, and for a word he is often judged stupid. So we have to be very careful what we say.
- We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize that we have one.
- Those who learn, but don't think, are lost. Those who think, but do not learn, are in danger.
- Never talk about yourself: neither for good, because nobody would believe you, nor for bad, because one would believe in it too much.
- Nothing is more visible than what is hidden.
- Not correcting our mistakes is like making others.
- The superior man understands justice and fairness; the little man understands personal interest.
- Silence is the true friend who never cheats.
- It is not the size of the plow that counts, but how much time you spend plowing the field.
Confucius phrases
- It is more shameful not to trust your friends than to be betrayed by them.
- The father who does not teach his son his homework is equally responsible as the son who neglects them.
- Seeing what is right and not doing it is lack of courage.
- If I listen I forget, if I read I remember, if I do I understand.
- Do not complain about the snow on the roof of the neighbor, if you have not yet cleared it from your door.
- A diamond with a defect is better than a perfect stone.
- A young person, when he is at home, should be respectful of his parents and, when he is abroad, he should be respectful of the older ones.
- Respect yourself and others will respect you.
- To love others and take care of them is to act with humanity. To understand them is to act with virtue.
- The roads were made the roads to travel not to get to a destination.
- I have never known a man who seeing his mistakes knew how to blame himself.
- Don't argue with a madman! Those who look at you would not distinguish one from the other.
- The master said: the prodigal is arrogant and the miser is mean. Pettyness is preferable to arrogance.
- I learned that calm is much more destabilizing than anger, that a smile disarms much more than a wrinkled face, I learned that silence in the face of an offense is a cry that makes the earth tremble. I learned that as a rejected love it is not lost but returns intact to the one who wanted to give it.
- When we talked a lot, we always said something that would have been better to keep silent.
- What the superior man looks for is in himself; what the lower man looks for is in others.
- Looking at the small advantages prevents large works from being built.
- The most difficult thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat.
- Eternal love lasts three months.
- The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor can man improve without testing.
- When you have flaws, don't be afraid to abandon them.
- There are two mistakes that can be made along the way to truth: don't go all the way, and don't start.
- Patience is power: with time and patience, each mulberry leaf becomes silk.
- A lion hunted me in a tree, and I enjoyed the view from above.
- Virtue is not made to be alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.
- Have loyalty and sincerity as first principles.
- A loud voice cannot compete with a clear voice, even if this is nothing more than a simple murmur.
- Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without a moon or stars.
- The superior man is calm without being arrogant; the man is arrogant without being calm.
- You can't open a book without learning something.
- The wise man acts before speaking and then speaks according to his action.
- In a well-run country, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a poorly governed country, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
- If there is righteousness of heart, there will be beauty of character. If there is beauty of character, there will be harmony in the house.
- Attack the evil within you, instead of attacking the evil within others.
- The lantern of experience only illuminates the wearer.
- Before embarking on the road to revenge, dig two tombs.
- A father who does not teach his son his duties is as guilty as the son who does not follow them.
- The superior man cultivates virtue, the inferior man cultivates material well-being. The superior man cultivates justice, the inferior man cultivates the hope of receiving favors.
