Mencius Quotes on Mind
Mengzi, conventionally known in the West as Mencius, was a Chinese Confucian philosopher of the fourth century BC, traditionally regarded as the second sage of the Confucian tradition after Confucius himself. This page collects quotes attributed to Mencius on the topic of mind, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
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