“The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.” — Confucius · The Analects, Book VII
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius · Widely attributed to Confucius
“He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.” — Confucius · The Analects, Book II
“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.” — Confucius · The Analects, Book II, c. 5th century BCE
“When you know that a thing is wrong, be quick to change. Do not wait.” — Mencius · Mencius, Book II A
“He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.” — Mencius · Mencius, Book VI A
“The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest.” — Mencius · Mencius, Book VII B
“To act without clear understanding, to form habits without examining them, to follow a path all your life without knowing where it goes — this is the behavior of the multitude.” — Mencius · Mencius, Book VII A