Q0364

“Wealth and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and lowliness cannot move him,…” — Mencius (Mencius, Teng Wen Gong II)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Mencius, Teng Wen Gong II. Theme: character.

English

Wealth and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and lowliness cannot move him, might and force cannot bend him—this is called a great man.
Thinker Mencius
School Confucianism
Source Mencius, Teng Wen Gong II
Theme Character
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Mencius, Teng Wen Gong II and files it under Confucianism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Mencius

Mencius (Meng Ke, c. 371–c.

Interpretation

Mencius is describing the person he calls a great man by what cannot be moved in them. The three clauses name the standard pressures — wealth and rank, poverty and obscurity, force — and claim each fails. The point is not insensitivity but that the person's orientation comes from something these do not reach. In context he is distinguishing this from mere stubbornness, which is why the list is of conditions rather than of hardships.

Why it matters

It supplies a concrete test of a commitment: name what would make you drop it. If nothing is named, it may be a preference rather than a conviction.

Concepts in this quote

Character
Character appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat character as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Mencius. (n.d.). Wealth and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and lowliness cannot move him, might and force cannot bend him—this is called a great man. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0364

MLA: Mencius. “Wealth and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0364.

Chicago: Mencius. “Wealth and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0364.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Wealth and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and…”?

The passage is attributed to Mencius, Mencius, Teng Wen Gong II. The archive attributes this English wording to Mencius, Teng Wen Gong II and files it under Confucianism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Mencius mean by character?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Arthur Schopenhauer and Heraclitus), character is framed through Confucianism and Voluntarism. Some passages define character; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through character.

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 character

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the character theme