Q0282

Mencius

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The heart of compassion is possessed by all; so too the hearts of shame, of respect, and of right and wrong.
Thinker Mencius
School Confucianism
Source Mencius, Gaozi I
Theme Human Nature
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Mencius, Gaozi I, 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 human nature, 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.). The heart of compassion is possessed by all; so too the hearts of shame, of respect, and of right and wrong. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0282

MLA: Mencius. “The heart of compassion is possessed by all;….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0282.

Chicago: Mencius. “The heart of compassion is possessed by all;….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0282.

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. Those who have the Way receive much help; those who lose the Way receive little help.

All quotations by Mencius

Same theme

More on human nature

  1. Man is by nature a political animal.
  2. Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature; but he is a thinking reed.
  3. [In the state of nature, the life of man is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
  4. Human nature is bad; whatever is good about it is the product of deliberate activity (wei).
  5. That whereby humans differ from birds and beasts is slight; ordinary people discard it, the noble person preserves it.

Browse the human nature theme