Top 100 Mencius Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The best things in life come in threes, like friends, dreams, and memories.”

— Mencius

2. “Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence.”

— Mencius

3. “To act without clear understanding, to form habits without investigation, to follow a path all one’s life without knowing where it really leads; such is the behavior of the multitude.”

— Mencius

4. “The feeling of compassion is the beginning of humanity.”

— Mencius

5. “If you know the point of balance, You can settle the details. If you can settle the details, You can stop running around. Your mind will become calm. If your mind becomes calm, You can think in front of a tiger. If you can think in front of a tiger, You will surely succeed.”

— Mencius

6. “Human nature is disposed to do good.”

— Mencius

7. “The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart.”

— Mencius

8. “When Heaven is about to confer a great office upon you, it first exercises your mind with suffering and your sinews and bones with toil.”

— Mencius

9. “Human nature is good, just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good, just as there is no water that does not flow downward.”

— Mencius

10. “Friends are the siblings God never gave us.”

— Mencius

11. “Never lose your child’s heart.”

— Mencius

12. “Sincerity is the way to heaven.”

— Mencius

13. “In abundance prepare for scarcity.”

— Mencius

14. “The disease of men is that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others.”

— Mencius

15. “Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do.”

— Mencius

16. “He who loves others is constantly loved by them. He who respects others is constantly respected by them.”

— Mencius

17. “Secure property in hand leads to peace in mind.”

— Mencius

18. “Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.”

— Mencius

19. “The great man does not think beforehand of his words that they may be sincere, nor of his actions that they may be resolute- he simply speaks and does what is right.”

— Mencius

20. “The way is near, but men seek it afar. It is in easy things, but men seek for it in difficult things.”

— Mencius

21. “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

22. “Friendship is one mind in two bodies.”

— Mencius

23. “He who respects others is respected by them.”

— Mencius

24. “The great person never loses a childlike spirit.”

— Mencius

25. “The Tao is near and people seek it far away.”

— Mencius

26. “So I like life and I like righteousness; if I cannot keep the two together, I will let life go and choose righteousness.”

— Mencius

27. “He who wishes to be benevolent will not be rich.”

— Mencius

28. “There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination.”

— Mencius

29. “I dislike death, however, there are some things I dislike more than death. Therefore, there are times when I will not avoid danger.”

— Mencius

30. “Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.”

— Mencius

31. “If the King loves music, it is well with the land.”

— Mencius

32. “Heaven sees as the people see. Heaven hears as the people hear.”

— Mencius

33. “Sincerity is the way to heaven; to think how to be sincere is the way of man.”

— Mencius

34. “A man must not be without shame, for the shame of being without shame is shamelessness indeed.”

— Mencius

35. “A real man is he whose goodness is a part of himself.”

— Mencius

36. “Integrity, wisdom, skill, intelligence – such things are forged in adversity.”

— Mencius

37. “Truth uttered before its time is dangerous.”

— Mencius

38. “The way of learning is none other than finding the lost mind.”

— Mencius

39. “Virtue alone is not sufficient for the exercise of government; laws alone cannot carry themselves into practice.”

— Mencius

40. “People are eager to comment on something when they themselves are not in the situation of doing it.”

— Mencius

41. “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.”

— Mencius

42. “When one by force subdues men, they do not submit to him in heart. They submit because their strength is not adequate to resist.”

— Mencius

43. “If you love men and they are unfriendly, look into your love; if you rule men and they are unruly, look into your wisdom; if you are courteous to them and they do not respond, look into your courtesy. If what you do is vain, always seek within.”

— Mencius

44. “Only when someone refuses to do certain things will he be capable of doing great things.”

— Mencius

45. “If you know that a thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it – why wait till next year?”

— Mencius

46. “It is not difficult to govern. All one has to do is not to offend the noble families.”

— Mencius

47. “A man must first despise himself, and then others will despise him.”

— Mencius

48. “The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote; the work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.”

— Mencius

49. “Those who follow the part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow the part which is little are little men.”

— Mencius

50. “The sole concern of learning is to seek one’s original heart.”

— Mencius