"If one should desire to know whether..." - Quote by Confucius
If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer.
More by Confucius
“If proper in their own conduct, what difficulty would they have in governing? But if not able to be proper in their own conduct, how can they demand such conduct from others?”
“Listen widely to remove your doubts and be careful when speaking about the rest and your mistakes will be few.”
“Study as if you have not reached your goal - hold it as if you were afraid of losing what you have.”
More on Governance
“How can anybody who is the head of a nation afford not to be a prag-matist?”
“It is the US government's desire for the Iraqi people to lead themselves, not for any outside power to be the leadership for Iraq in the future. There may be some transition period where the international community would have to help the Iraqi people put in place a representative government. But that is the goal, not for the United States, or any other nation, for that matter, who might be in such a coalition, if one is formed, to serve as the leader of the Iraqi nation.”
“Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.”
More on Culture
“I can't remember the last time I went to a game and there was a fight. I think they fight more in baseball now than they do in hockey.”
“Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours,Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children,as the leopard; and yet we are so early weanedfrom her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusivelyan interaction of man on man.”
“We belong to an age whose culture is in danger of perishing through the means to culture.”