Quotations: fish, what I want; Bear's paw is what I want You can't have your cake and eat it. You can't have your cake and eat it.

Life is what I want; Righteousness is also what I want. You can't have both, and you have to sacrifice your life for righteousness. Life is what I want. I want it more than the living, so I don't want it. Death is what I hate (wü), worse than death, so I have what I don't want (bü).

Translation:

I want fish and bear's paw. If I can't get both at the same time, I'd rather give up fish and choose bear's paw.

Life is what I want, justice is what I want. If these two things cannot be obtained at the same time, then I would rather sacrifice my life and choose righteousness.

Life is what I want, but I want more than life, so I don't do anything to drag out an ignoble existence; I hate death, but there are some things that I hate more than death, so I don't avoid some disasters.

Extended data:

Mencius was listed as "Four Books" by Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty (the other three books were Daxue, The Doctrine of the Mean and The Analects of Confucius). In the mid-Warring States period, Mencius and his disciples Zhang Wan, Gong Sunchou and others. The earliest inscription in Zhao Qi's "Mencius" reads: "This book was also written by Mencius, so it is called Mencius".

There are eleven pieces of Mencius recorded in History of Han, and there are seven pieces and fourteen volumes. The total number of words is more than 35,000 words and 286 chapters. According to legend, there are four other books of Mencius, which have been lost (this book of Mencius is a fake of Yao Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty).

This book records the politics, education, philosophy, ethical thoughts and political activities of Mencius and his disciples. Ancient examinations mainly included four books and five classics.