Quotes by Confucius

Learning without thought is labor lost;
thought without learning is perilous.
--Confucius

When prosperity comes, do not use all of it.
--Confucius

To be excellent when engaged in administration is to be like the North Star. As it remains in its one position, all the other stars surround it.
--Confucius

In a country well governed poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed wealth is something to be ashamed of.
--Confucius

When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.
--Confucius

To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.
--Confucius

The Poems, all three hundred of them, may be summed up in one of their phrases: "Let our thoughts be correct".
--Confucius

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.
--Confucius

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is the easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
--Confucius

Rotten wood cannot be carved.
--Confucius

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.
--Confucius

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
--Confucius

Have no friends not equal to yourself.
--Confucius

We take greater pains to persuade others that we are happy than in endeavoring to think so ourselves.
--Confucius

The perfecting of one's self is the fundamental base of all progress and all moral development.
--Confucius

The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort, is not fit to be deemed a scholar.
--Confucius

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.
--Confucius