Confucius: Doing

Confucius was Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on doing.

Confucius: 538 quotes101 likes

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

“Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you.”

Variant: What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
Source: The Analects, Other chapters, Chapter XVː23

“If you make a mistake and do not correct it, this is called a mistake.”

Confucius

“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”

Confucius

Source: The Book of Rites

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

Confucius

Xunzi in the Xunzi (book)
Misattributed, Chinese

“I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself.”

Confucius

§ 7
The Analects, Chapter I, Chapter VII
Context: I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson.

“It is only he who is possessed of the most complete sincerity that can exist under heaven, who can give its full development to his nature. Able to give its full development to his own nature, he can do the same to the nature of other men.”

Confucius

The Analects, The Doctrine of the Mean
Context: It is only he who is possessed of the most complete sincerity that can exist under heaven, who can give its full development to his nature. Able to give its full development to his own nature, he can do the same to the nature of other men. Able to give its full development to the nature of other men, he can give their full development to the natures of animals and things. Able to give their full development to the natures of creatures and things, he can assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth. Able to assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth, he may with Heaven and Earth form a ternion.

“To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.”

Confucius

The Analects, Chapter I, Chapter II
Variant: To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle.
Context: To worship to other than one's own ancestral spirits is brown-nosing. If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.
Variant To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle.

“A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do we know that his future will not be equal to our present?”

Confucius

Source: The Life and Wisdom of Confucius

“If you don't want to do something, don't impose on others”

Confucius

“When a person should be spoken with, and you don't speak with them, you lose them. When a person shouldn't be spoken with and you speak to them, you waste your breath. The wise do not lose people, nor do they waste their breath.”

Confucius

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

Confucius

Source: The Analects, Other chapters

“If there were an honorable way to get rich, I’d do it, even if it meant being a stooge standing around with a whip. But there isn’t an honorable way, so I just do what I like.”

Confucius book Analects