Q0406

“Only when there are things one will not do, can one then…” — Mencius (Mencius, Li Lou II)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Mencius, Li Lou II. Theme: action.

English

Only when there are things one will not do, can one then accomplish things.
Thinker Mencius
School Confucianism
Source Mencius, Li Lou II
Theme Action
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Mencius, Li Lou 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 making a point about capacity rather than restraint. His claim is that the ability to act well depends on having settled what one will not do, because a person who will do anything has no standard by which to choose. The "not doing" is what makes the "doing" deliberate. In context this belongs to his account of how a person preserves what distinguishes them, which requires refusing what would compromise it.

Why it matters

It is a test of whether you have a standard: can you name what you would refuse even if it succeeded? Without one, choices are made by circumstance.

Concepts in this quote

Action
Action concerns agency: what it is to do something intentionally, and how thought becomes practice.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Mencius. (n.d.). Only when there are things one will not do, can one then accomplish things. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0406

MLA: Mencius. “Only when there are things one will not….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0406.

Chicago: Mencius. “Only when there are things one will not….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0406.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Only when there are things one will not…”?

The passage is attributed to Mencius, Mencius, Li Lou II. The archive attributes this English wording to Mencius, Li Lou 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 action?

Philosophy of action asks how intentions, reasons, habits, and consequences hang together. Ethical traditions often insist that knowing the good is incomplete without doing it. This passage enters that discussion through action.

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 action

  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 action theme