Confucius Quotes on Knowledge
The Analects record Confucius's distinctive treatment of knowledge as inseparable from ethical and political practice. To know a thing is to know what to do about it, and to know that you know what you know and that you do not know what you do not know is the genuine knowledge that the recovery of the Way (Dao) requires. The doctrine of the rectification of names — that disorder in society begins when the names of things no longer correspond to their realities — frames the entire Confucian program: to know is to use the right names of relationships (ruler, minister, father, son, friend) and so to act in accordance with the responsibilities those relationships properly entail.
Quotes
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“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”
學而不思則罔，思而不學則殆。 -
Attributed to Confucius:
“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it — this is knowledge.”
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“The Morals of Confucius , 2nd edition (London, 1724), Maxim X, p. 114”
He that in his studies wholly applies himself to labour and exercise, and neglects meditation, loses his time, and he that only applies himself to meditation, and neglects labour and exercise, only wanders and loses himself. -
“Men do not stumble over mountains , but over molehills”
Reported in United States Congress House Committee on Agriculture (1973) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress , p. 21 -
“Man has three ways of acting wisely. First, on meditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, on imitation ; that is the easiest. Thirdly, on experience ; that is the bitterest.”
The Analects , as reported in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 279 -
“It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.”
Reportedly in: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Mistrust, Conspiracy, and Lack of Internet Ethics (1980) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress . p. 32 -
“Reportedly in: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Mistrust, Conspiracy, and Lack of Internet Ethics (1980) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress . p. 32”
It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them. -
“I am not concerned that I have no place; I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that I am not known; I seek to be worthy to be known.”
Analects | IV, xiv. Quoted from Will Durant , Our Oriental Heritage . -
“They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.”
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“The superior man, extensively studying all learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety, may thus likewise not overstep what is right.”
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“There is the love of knowing without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to dissipation of mind.”
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“You [a disciple], shall I teach you about knowledge ? What you know, you know, what you don't know, you don't know. This is true knowledge.”
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“Guide the people by law, subdue them by punishment; they may shun crime, but will be void of shame. Guide them by example, subdue them by courtesy; they will learn shame, and come to be good.”
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“I am not bothered by the fact that I am not understood. I am bothered when I do not know others.”
Analects