“Confucius say if man want to grow one row of corn, first must shovel one ton of shit.”
― Stephen King, Misery

“If your desire is for good, the people will be good.”
― Confucius

“1. Myth: Without God, life has no meaning.

There are 1.2 billion Chinese who have no predominant religion, and 1 billion people in India who are predominantly Hindu. And 65% of Japan's 127 million people claim to be non-believers. It is laughable to suggest that none of these billions of people are leading meaningful lives.

2. Myth: Prayer works.

Studies have now shown that inter-cessionary prayer has no effect whatsoever of the health or well-being of the subject.

3. Myth: Atheists are immoral.

There are hundreds of millions of non-believers on the planet living normal, decent, moral lives. They love their children, care about others, obey laws, and try to keep from doing harm to others just like everyone else. In fact, in predominantly non-believing countries such as in northern Europe, measures of societal health such as life expectancy at birth, adult literacy, per capita income, education, homicide, suicide, gender equality, and political coercion are better than they are in believing societies.

4. Myth: Belief in God is compatible with science.

In the past, every supernatural or paranormal explanation of phenomena that humans believed turned out to be mistaken; science has always found a physical explanation that revealed that the supernatural view was a myth. Modern organisms evolved from lower life forms, they weren't created 6,000 years ago in the finished state. Fever is not caused by demon possession. Bad weather is not the wrath of angry gods. Miracle claims have turned out to be mistakes, frauds, or deceptions. We have every reason to conclude that science will continue to undermine the superstitious worldview of religion.

5. Myth: We have immortal souls that survive death.

We have mountains of evidence that makes it clear that our consciousness, our beliefs, our desires, our thoughts all depend upon the proper functioning of our brains our nervous systems to exist. So when the brain dies, all of these things that we identify with the soul also cease to exist. Despite the fact that billions of people have lived and died on this planet, we do not have a single credible case of someone's soul, or consciousness, or personality continuing to exist despite the demise of their bodies.

6. Myth: If there is no God, everything is permitted.

Consider the billions of people in China, India, and Japan above. If this claim was true, none of them would be decent moral people. So Ghandi, the Buddha, and Confucius, to name only a few were not moral people on this view.

7. Myth: Believing in God is not a cause of evil.

The examples of cases where it was someone's belief in God that was the justification for their evils on humankind are too numerous to mention.

8. Myth: God explains the origins of the universe.

All of the questions that allegedly plague non-God attempts to explain our origins still apply to the faux explanation of God. The suggestion that God created everything does not make it any clearer to us where it all came from, how he created it, why he created it, where it is all going. In fact, it raises even more difficult mysteries: how did God, operating outside the confines of space, time, and natural law 'create' or 'build' a universe that has physical laws? We have no precedent and maybe no hope of answering or understanding such a possibility. What does it mean to say that some disembodied, spiritual being who knows everything and has all power, 'loves' us, or has thoughts, or goals, or plans?

9. Myth: There's no harm in believing in God.

Religious views inform voting, how they raise their children, what they think is moral and immoral, what laws and legislation they pass, who they are friends and enemies with, what companies they invest in, where they donate to charities, who they approve and disapprove of, who they are willing to kill or tolerate, what crimes they are willing to commit, and which wars they are willing to fight.”
― Matt McCormick

“On a deux vies et la deuxième commence le jour ou l'on se rend compte qu'on n'en a qu'une.”
― Confucius, Les Entretiens - Tao-tö king - Sur le destin

“Revenge may be exacted a hundred times over in one sleepless night. The impulse, the dreaming intention, is human, normal, and we should forgive ourselves. But the raised hand, the actual violent enactment, is cursed. The maths says so. There’ll be no reversion to the status quo ante, no balm, no sweet relief, or none that lasts. Only a second crime. Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches a civilisation. It’s a reversion to constant, visceral fear.”
― Ian McEwan, Nutshell

“There is a certain proper and luxurious way of lying in bed. Confucius, that great artist of life, "never lay straight" in bed, "like a corpse", but always curled up on one side. I believe one of the greatest pleasures of life is to curl up one's legs in bed. The posture of the arms is also very important, in order to reach the greatest degree of aesthetic pleasure and mental power. I believe the best posture is not lying flat on the bed, but being upholstered with big soft pillows at an angle of thirty degrees with either one arm or both arms placed behind the back of one's head.”
― Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living

“Plantie is a very strong Protestant, that is to say, he's against all churches, especially the Protestant: and he thinks a lot of Buddha, Karma and Confucius. He is also a bit of an anarchist and three or four years ago he took up Einstein and vitamins.”
― Joyce Cary, The Horse's Mouth

“وهو يؤمن بأن الحكومة إنما أنشئت لخدمة الشعب وليس العكس. وأن الحاكم يجب أن تكون عنده قيم أخلاقية ومثل عليا . ومن الحكم التي اتخذها كونفوشيوس قاعدة لسلوكه تلك الحكمة القديمة التي تقول : "أحب لغيرك ما تحب لنفسك”
― Michael H. Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History

“Kebanggaan kita yang terbesar adalah bukang tidak pernah gagal, tetapi bangkit kembali setiap kali kita jatuh.”
― Confucius

“Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in.”
― Confucius

“While they have not got their aims, their anxiety is how to get them. When they have got them, their anxiety is lest they should lose them.”
― Confucius, The Complete Confucius

“There is an old proverb in our kingdom: “He who seeks revenge should dig two graves.” (Confucius)”
― Natasha Ngan, Girls of Paper and Fire

“I "love" reading.
It makes me feel like I am swallowing up Christ, Homer, Confucius, Newton, Franklin, Socrates, Caesar, and the whole world into one gigantic invincible Sir Moffat. Mine is creative reading. I read building empires in mind.

I pray I won't read and read and forget to marry.”
― Moffat Machingura

“I was particularly fascinated by the story of the circumstances that led to the development of tertiary education in China. It seems hard to imagine—but there was a time when institutionalized education, formal curricula and exams didn’t exist.”
― Dipa Sanatani, The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey

“He said : Not to know the decree is to be
without the means of being a proper man.
2. Not to know the rites is to be without means to
construct.
3. Not to know words is to
be without the fluid needful to understand men.”
― Confucius, Confucian Analects

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”
― Confucius, 100 quotes by Confucius: Great philosophers & their inspiring thoughts

“You do not yet understand life - how could you understand death?"
- Confucius”
― Michael Puett, The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life

“Staying with good people is like entering a room with orchids. You won't notice the fragrance, but you'll be soaked in the scent. Staying with evil people is just like going inside a stinky fish store. You won't smell it after a while because you will blend with the stench. Keep red things and you'll turn red. Keep lacquer, and you'll turn black ...So a wise man should be careful of where he stays...”
― Confucius

“The goodie-goodies are the thieves of virtue.”
― Confucius

“Be yourself.
Unless yourself is an asshole.”
― David Sedaris, Happy-Go-Lucky

“The traditional Confucian structure that invoked ideals of perfect human virtue for harmony must incorporate the rule of law for the modern era.”
― Patrick Mendis, Peaceful War: How the Chinese Dream and the American Destiny Create a New Pacific World Order

“Unlike Confucius, Madison maintained that people have a limited capacity to control their passions themselves and act virtuously when their individual interests conflict with others.”
― Patrick Mendis, Peaceful War: How the Chinese Dream and the American Destiny Create a New Pacific World Order

“America acknowledged the greatness of Confucius through a trio of ancient lawgivers—Moses flanked by Confucius to his right and Solon on his left—on the monument to “Justice, the Guardian of Liberty” displayed on the eastern pediment of the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.”
― Patrick Mendis, Peaceful War: How the Chinese Dream and the American Destiny Create a New Pacific World Order

“The Chinese dream is an American dream embedded in a Confucian cocoon.”
― Patrick Mendis, Peaceful War: How the Chinese Dream and the American Destiny Create a New Pacific World Order

“Confucius advised his disciples, ‘Wherever you go, go with all your heart.’ Giving all of oneself to an artistic effort is particularly apropos because even the most talented writer, poet, singer, painter, musician, or philosopher will tear a tatter from their soul in order to produce anything that will stand the test of time and affect the minds of other people. While I admittedly lack the talent, skill, poise, grace, intelligence, creativity, and persistence of esteemed writers, I share what every writer must, an awful craving to know what previously escaped me, to know thy self and my place in the world. An irrepressible hunger to know, searching for the truth that governs our being, is what makes us human.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster

“Confucius believed that through self-cultivation, one can mold one's character because it is plastic and malleable. Virtue does not come from one's natural ability or innate capacity, but from one's single-minded effort and disciplined practice. Work is therefore not an expression of an individual's own passions and values, but of one's persistent dedication to loving one's family and community.”
― Russell Jeung, At Home In Exile: Finding Jesus among My Ancestors and Refugee Neighbors

“You need to visit China to see Chinese proverbs up close.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“A country that let its rituals fall apart would soon fall apart itself.
This I knew from the classroom years, of course. Confucius and his followers all said it. But they didn't say that we had to let rituals strangle us like vines could strangle trees, choking the lifeblood from them until only the husk remained.”
― Ijen Kim, The Sunset Emperor

“I knew I had become a successful author of quotes when my thoughts started appearing alongside those of Mark Twain, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, Confucius, Buddha, and so many other notable people in history.”
― Steven Magee

“For one thing, possibly this war has more profoundly shaken the Chinese clan-family system than any previous catastrophe. Of course, the system is not unique to China but characteristic of many feudal and semi-feudal societies surviving in Asia. It is still vigorous in India and is probably stronger in Japan, with peculiar differences, than in China. Total war imposed on the individual Chinese heavy and complicated problems which the limited resources of familism were no longer able to meet alone. The mass need for security in the face of unprecedented catastrophe results in new forms of social combination and interdependence, and a greater readiness to submit to broad group authority.

Millions of people have been separated from their relatives and even their parents, some by army conscription, some in the confusion of escape from death, but thousands by voluntary desertion of family for country. If a Chinese Gallup could circulate a questionnaire among China's youth today, to ask, "What is your first duty?" the finding might be considered revolutionary. Quite a percentage would answer, "To China" instead of "To my family."

Confucius said wu wei meant simply that the highest duty of man is to serve one's parents while they are alive, to bury them with propriety when dead, and to worship them with propriety when buried. "All you need to take with you to govern China," Akira Kazami advised the Japanese Cabinet of which he is chief secretary, "is the Confucian Analects." But in many ways the 2,500 years of Confucian domination of the Chinese intellect is being overthrown. Filial piety is no longer the glorified thing it was once.”
― Edgar Snow, The Battle For Asia