Mencius Quotes on Mind
Mencius, the second great teacher of the Confucian tradition, gave the mind a central place in his account of moral cultivation, and the quotes gathered here express it. Mencius held that human nature is originally good, and that to understand it one must look inward, for he who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature. His most distinctive teaching is that moral education is essentially a recovery of something already possessed but neglected: the way of learning, he said, is none other than finding the lost mind. He found it lamentable that people will search diligently for a lost dog or fowl yet lose their mind and not know to seek it again. He also described a settled steadiness as the fruit of cultivation, recalling that at forty he had attained the unperturbed mind. These passages present the mind as the seat of an innate goodness to be guarded and regained.
Quotes
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Attributed to Mencius:
“All things are already complete in oneself.”
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“He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature.”
7A:1, as translated by Wing-tsit Chan in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (1963), p. 62 -
“Compare: Oh, Soul, remember howe’er small the scope Of thought or action that around thee lies, It is the finished task alone can ope The gates of paradise. — Anon.”
Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient(1882) -
“The way of learning is none other than finding the lost mind .”
The Mencius | 6A:11, as translated by Wing-tsit Chan in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (1963), p. 58 -
“The great end of learning is nothing else but to seek for the lost mind.”
Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient(1882) | "Uses and Sanctions", no. 32 -
“How lamentable is it to neglect the path and not pursue it, to lose the mind and not know to seek it again! When men’s fowls and dogs are lost, they know to seek for them again, but they lose their mind and do not know to seek for it.”
Nitobe Inazō , Bushido: The Soul of Japan , 13th ed. (1908), p. 21 -
“At forty, I had attained the unperturbed mind.”
Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient(1882) | "Discipline and Character", no. 41