A biography for Menciushasn’t been written yet.
“Secure property in hand leads to peace in mind.”
“Friendship is one mind in two bodies.”
“Every duty is a charge, but the charge of oneself is the root of all others.”
“Friends are the siblings God never gave us.”
“Truth uttered before its time is always dangerous.”
“Words that speak of things close at hand and carry far-reaching implications – those are the good words.”
“Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.”
“Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue.”
“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.”
“If Confucius wasn't born, the long night would have no bright lamp.”
“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.”
“Only when there are things a man will not do is he capable of doing great things.”
“People can have a long-term life plan only if they know their private property is secure.”
“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.”
“A man must not be without shame, for the shame of being without shame is shamelessness indeed.”
“Let men decide firmly what they will not do, and they will be free to do vigorously what they ought to do.”
“The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the least.”
“It is not difficult to govern. All one has to do is not to offend the noble families.”
“Mankind fears an evil man but heaven does not.”
“Sincerity is the way to heaven.”