The Analects (Lunyu) Quotes

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

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

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”

“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

“He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.”

“The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.”

“Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning.”

“He that in his studies wholly applies himself to labour and exercise, and neglects meditation, loses his time, and he that only applies himself to meditation, and neglects labour and exercise, only wanders and loses himself.”

“Men do not stumble over mountains, but over molehills”

“Man has three ways of acting wisely. First, on meditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, on imitation; that is the easiest. Thirdly, on experience; that is the bitterest.”

“It is not truth that makes man great, but man that makes truth great.”

“It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.”

“The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.”

“Follow the seasons of Ha, Ride in the state carriage of Yau, Wear the ceremonial cap of Chan, Let the music be the Shiu with its pantomimes.”

“I am not concerned that I have no place; I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that I am not known; I seek to be worthy to be known.”

“To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.”

“Cornered vessel without corners, strange cornered vessel, strange cornered vessel.”

“A man's character is formed by the Odes, developed by the Rites and perfected by music.”

“The man of perfect virtue is cautious and slow in his speech. When a man feels the difficulty of doing, can he be other than cautious and slow in speaking?”

“The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear. When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there to fear?”

“If the people have no faith in their rulers, there is no standing for the state.”

“By extensively studying all learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety, one may thus likewise not err from what is right.”

“A man living without conflicts, as if he never lives at all.”

“A scholar who loves comfort is not worthy of the name.”

“When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.”

“Guide the people by law, subdue them by punishment; they may shun crime, but will be void of shame. Guide them by example, subdue them by courtesy; they will learn shame, and come to be good.”

“Only after Winter comes do we know that the pine and the cypress are the last to fade.”

“The superior man loves his soul; the inferior man loves his property.”