“Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.”

—  Confucius

Last update Oct. 29, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage." by Confucius?
Confucius photo
Confucius 269
Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher -551–-479 BC

Related quotes

Confucius photo

“If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

The Analects, Chapter I, Chapter II
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.

Confucius photo

“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.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

(zh-TW) 非其鬼而祭之，諂也。見義不為，無勇也。
The Analects, Chapter I, Chapter II

Yoshida Kenkō photo

“Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do.”

Yoshida Kenkō (1283–1350) japanese writer

One of the sayings of the venerable sages, called Ichigon Hödan.
Tsurezure-Gusa (Essays in Idleness)

W. Clement Stone photo

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.”

W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American New Thought author

As quoted in Teen Ink : What Matters (2003) by Stephanie H. Meyer, John Meyer, and Peggy Veljkovic, p. 309

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe photo

“The really unhappy person is the one who leaves undone what they can do, and starts doing what they don't understand; no wonder they come to grief.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician
James Russell Lowell photo

“She doeth little kindnesses
Which most leave undone, or despise.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

My Love. iv.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Bertrand Russell photo

“To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

1920s, The Prospects of Industrial Civilization (1923)

“People know what they love … Even those whose lives are floundering. If they're directionless, it's not because they lack knowledge of what they want. It's because they lack the courage to acknowledge that they want it.”

Andrew Bernstein (1949) American philosopher

Heart of a Pagan (2002).

Tony Blair photo

“This is the time not just for this Government– or, indeed, for this Prime Minister—but for this House to give a lead: to show that we will stand up for what we know to be right; to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk; to show, at the moment of decision, that we have the courage to do the right thing.”

Tony Blair (1953) former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Hansard http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo030318/debtext/30318-09.htm#30318-09_spmin2, House of Commons, 6th series, vol. 301, cols. 773-774.
Conclusion of speech in the House of Commons debate on Iraq, 18 March 2003.
2000s

Related topics