Selections From Mencius II

Selections From Mencius II
by Scott Bradley

"Think of the consequences before you speak of the shortcomings of others." (IV B 9)

"A great man is the one who retains the heart of a newborn babe." (IV B 12)

"The conduct of sages is not always the same." (V A 7)

"There are more ways than one of instructing others. My distain to instruct a man is itself one way of instructing him." (VI B 16)

"For a man to give full realization to his heart is for him to understand his own nature, and a man who knows his own nature will know Heaven." (VII A 1)

"'Seek and you will get it; let go and you will lose it.' If this is the case, then seeking is of use in getting and what is sought is in yourself." (VII A 3)

"All the ten thousand things are in me. There is no greater joy for me than to find, on self-examination, that I am true to myself. Try your best to treat others as you would wish them to treat yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence." (VII A 4)

"The multitude can be said never to understand what they practice, to notice what they repeatedly do, or to be aware of the path they follow all their lives." (VII A 5)

"A man must not be without shame, for the shame of being without shame is shamelessness indeed." (VII A 6)

"To try to achieve anything is like digging a well. You can dig a hole nine fathoms deep, but if you fail to reach the source of water, it is just an abandoned well." (VII A 29)

"If a man borrows a thing [te] and keeps it long enough, how can one be sure that it will not become truly his." (VII A 30)

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