Q0149

Mencius

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Those who have the Way receive much help; those who lose the Way receive little help.
Thinker Mencius
School Confucianism
Source Mencius, Gongsun Chou II
Theme Way
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Mencius, Gongsun Chou 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 way, 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.). Those who have the Way receive much help; those who lose the Way receive little help. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0149

MLA: Mencius. “Those who have the Way receive much help;….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0149.

Chicago: Mencius. “Those who have the Way receive much help;….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0149.

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. Mencius said: Those who love others are constantly loved by others; those who respect others are constantly respected by others.
  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 way

  1. The Master said: If one hears the Way in the morning, one may die content that evening.
  2. The highest good is like water. Water benefits the myriad things and does not contend; it dwells in places the multitude dislike — therefore it is close to the Way.
  3. Humans model themselves on earth; earth on heaven; heaven on the Way; and the Way on what is naturally so.
  4. Ordinary mind is the Way.
  5. What Heaven mandates is called nature; following nature is called the Way; cultivating the Way is called teaching.

Browse the way theme