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The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote; the work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.

Mencius

If you know that a thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it–why wait till next year?
MENCIUS

End Evil Wait Years
Friendship is one mind in two bodies.
MENCIUS

Body Friendship Oneself
Human nature is good, just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good, just as there is no water that does not flow downward.
MENCIUS

Goodness Human Humanity Men Nature Water
He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.
MENCIUS

Leadership Men Spirituality
Those who follow the part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow the part which is little are little men.
MENCIUS

Greatness Men
To act without clear understanding, to form habits without investigation, to follow a path all one’s life without knowing where it really leads; such is the behavior of the multitude.
MENCIUS

Act Ignorance Leadership Life Understand
The disease of men is that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others.
MENCIUS

Avoid Destroy Hate Man
The gap between enthusiasm and indifference is filled with failures. The great man is he that does not lose his child’s heart.
MENCIUS

Children Failure Heart Men
The way of truth is like a great road. It is not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will not seek it.
MENCIUS

Difficult Evil Men Seek
Let not a man do what his sense of right bids him not to do, nor desire what it forbids him to desire. This is sufficient. The skillful artist will not alter his measures for the sake of a stupid workman.
MENCIUS

Artist Desire Men Stupidity
Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue, and does not admit of assumptions of superiority.
MENCIUS

Character Friendship Men
The people turn in allegiance to Humanity, as surely as water flows downward or as a wild animal takes cover in the wilderness.
MENCIUS

Animal Humanity People Water Wild
Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.
MENCIUS

Kindness Men Reputation
The way is near, but men seek it afar. It is in easy things, but men seek for it in difficult things.
MENCIUS

Easy Men Philosophy Seek Way
A small country cannot contend with a great; the few cannot contend with the many; the weak cannot contend with the strong.
MENCIUS

Country Greatness Strong Weakness
All things are already complete in us. There is no greater delight than to be conscious of right within us. If one strives to treat others as he would be treated by them, he shall not fail to come near the perfect life.
MENCIUS

Divine Failure Perfection Philosophy Right

The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote; the work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.

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The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote; the work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.

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Popular Authors

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