Q0148

Mencius

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Mencius said: Those who love others are constantly loved by others; those who respect others are constantly respected by others.
Thinker Mencius
School Confucianism
Source Mencius, Lilou II
Theme Love
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Mencius, Lilou II, within the tradition of Confucianism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of love, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Mencius's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Mencius. (n.d.). Mencius said: Those who love others are constantly loved by others; those who respect others are constantly respected by others. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0148

MLA: Mencius. “Mencius said: Those who love others are constantly….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0148.

Chicago: Mencius. “Mencius said: Those who love others are constantly….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0148.

Same thinker

More from Mencius

  1. From this we know that we survive through adversity, and perish in ease and pleasure.
  2. Thus, when Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on someone, it first afflicts his mind and will, exhausts his muscles and bones, starves his body, subjects him to poverty, and confounds his undertakings — so as to stir his mind, harden his nature, and increase his capacities.
  3. Mencius said: In obscurity, cultivate yourself alone; when successful, bring goodness to all under Heaven.
  4. Those who have the Way receive much help; those who lose the Way receive little help.
  5. The heart of compassion is possessed by all; so too the hearts of shame, of respect, and of right and wrong.

All quotations by Mencius

Same theme

More on love

  1. Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good.
  2. A friend is another self.
  3. If you wish to be loved, love.
  4. Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!
  5. Compassion is the basis of morality.

Browse the love theme