"My reason for saying that no man is devoid of a heart sensitive to the suffering of others is this. Suppose a man were, all of a sudden, to see a young child on the verge of falling into a well. He would certainly be moved to compassion, not because he wanted to get in the good graces of the parents, nor because he wished to win the praise of his fellow villagers or friends, nor yet because he disliked the cry of the child. From this, it can be seen that whoever devoid of the heart of compassion is not human, whoever is devoid of the heart of shame is not human, whoever is devoid of the heart of courtesy and modesty is not human, and whoever is devoid of the heart of right and wrong is not human. The heart of compassion is the germ of benevolence; the heart of shame, of dutifulness; the heart of courtesy and modesty, of observance of the rites; the heart of right and wrong, of wisdom. Man has these four germs just as he has four limbs. For a man possessing these four germs to deny his own potentialities of his prince is for him to cripple his prince. If a man is able to develop all these four germs that he possesses, it will be like a fire starting up or a spring coming through. When these are fully developed, he can tend the whole realm within the Four Seas, but if he fails to develop them, he will not be able to even serve his parents" (Mencius 38-39). .
As the primary successor of Confucius, Mencius is renowned for his exploration into the nature of human beings and the assertion that all men are intrinsically good. Mencius' theory on the goodness of human nature is based on the idea that the fundamental virtues of benevolence, dutifulness, respect for rites, and wisdom are innate qualities that are to be developed by each and every person. Originally not a topic of much concern, Confucius only once briefly remarked, in the Analects of Confucius, "Men are close to one another by nature.