“When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.”
Confucius · The Analects, Book I
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Wisdom Quotes
WisdomTruth
286 quotes on wisdom and truth — from the classics to the everyday.
“The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.”
Confucius · The Analects, Book VII
“He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.”
Confucius · The Analects, Book II
“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.”
Confucius · The Analects, Book II, c. 5th century BCE
“When you know that a thing is wrong, be quick to change. Do not wait.”
Mencius · Mencius, Book II A
“He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.”
Mencius · Mencius, Book VI A
“The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest.”
Mencius · Mencius, Book VII B
“To act without clear understanding, to form habits without examining them, to follow a path all your life without knowing where it goes — this is the behavior of the multitude.”
Mencius · Mencius, Book VII A
“The way of truth is like a great road. It is not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will not seek it.”
Mencius · Mencius, Book VI B
“If you know that a thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it. Why should you wait till next year?”
Mencius · Mencius, Book III B
“The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity; the feeling of shame is the beginning of righteousness.”
Mencius · Mencius, Book II A
“Benevolence is the heart of man, and righteousness is the path of man.”
Mencius · Mencius, Book VI A
“A man must first despise himself, and then others will despise him.”
Mencius · Mencius, Book IV A
“The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.”
Mencius · Mencius, Book IV B, c. 4th century BCE
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
Khalil Gibran · The Prophet, 1923
“The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don't know.”
Barbara Kingsolver · The Lacuna, 2009
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Friedrich Nietzsche · Twilight of the Idols, 1889
