Confucian Proverb.
There are three thousand offenses against which the five punishments are directed, and there is not one of them greater than being unfilial.—The Hsiao King, The Five Punishments.
Benevolence is man's mind and righteousness is man's path.
How lamentable is it to neglect the path and not pursue it, to lose the mind and not know to seek it again.—Mencius, Kaou Tsze (pt. i., ch. xi.).
Tsze Kung asked, saying, "What do you say of a man who is loved by all the people of his village?" The Master replied, "We may not for that accord our approval of him." "And what do you say of him who is hated by all the people of his village?" The Master said, "We may not for that conclude that he is bad. It is better than either of these cases that the good in the village love him and the bad hate him."—Confucian An., Tsze Loo (ch. xxiv.).
Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in which they ought.—Mencius, Le Low (pt. ii., ch. viii.).
Learn as if you could not reach your object and were always fearing also lest you should lose it.—Confucian An., T'ae Pih (ch. xvii.).
King Wan looked on the people as he would on a man who was wounded, and he looked toward the right path as if he could not see it.—Mencius, Le Low (pt. ii., ch. xx.).
To nourish the heart there is nothing better than to make the desires few.—Mencius, Tsin Sin (ch. xxxv.).
When Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.—Mencius, Kaou Tsze (pt. ii. ch. xv.).