Genuine. The saying is Analects, Book VI — recorded by Confucius’s disciples as 知者樂水，仁者樂山 — and this exact English is James Legge’s, printed at Book VI, Chap. XXI of The Chinese Classics, Vol. I (1861). Credit the thought to Confucius and the wording to his translator.
“The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills” Confucius, The Analects, Book VI, trans. James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1 (London: Trübner & Co., 1861).
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In context
Evoking the world of Confucius — Chinese philosopher and teacher. Theme: "The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
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Provenance
The source
Work
The Analects (Lunyu), Book VI
Passage
Chap. XXI in Legge’s printing — the same passage the Chinese Text Project numbers 6.23
Translation
James Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol. I (London: Trübner & Co., 1861); rev. 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1893
Original
子曰：「知者樂水，仁者樂山；知者動，仁者靜；知者樂，仁者壽。」
The Master said, ‘The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous are long-lived.’
↑ Legge’s Victorian English — his rendering of the recorded Chinese, not Confucius’s own words
Analects, Book VI, Chap. XXI in Legge’s numbering (6.23 at the Chinese Text Project). The half-line everyone quotes is only the first clause of a six-part parallel.
The Chinese — the Chinese Text Project prints 知者樂水，仁者樂山 beside Legge’s English, “The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills,” in Book VI (Yong Ye), passage 23 ↗.
1861 — James Legge publishes the translation in The Chinese Classics, Vol. I (London: Trübner & Co.); the scanned first edition ↗ is on the Internet Archive. A revised second edition followed from Oxford’s Clarendon Press in 1893, per Wikipedia’s account of Legge ↗.
The printed wording — Legge sets the line at BOOK VI, CHAP. XXI, in the full Gutenberg text of his translation ↗. His chapter number differs from the Chinese Text Project’s 6.23; they are the same passage.
Not on the fake list — Wikiquote ↗ carries this line in its sourced Analects section, while the famous non-Confucius lines — “a journey of a thousand miles” (Laozi), “I hear and I forget” (Xunzi) — sit in a separate misattributed section.
✓Public domain
Legge’s translation was first published in The Chinese Classics, Vol. I (London: Trübner & Co., 1861), with a revised second edition from the Clarendon Press in 1893 — both long before 1931, and Legge died in 1897 — so this English wording is in the public domain in the United States. The underlying Classical Chinese has been public property for over two millennia. (Modern translations of the same passage are separate works and may still be in copyright.)
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
What to watch for
This one is genuine — unusual for a Confucius quotation. So the thing to watch is not the attribution but the wording, and the company the line keeps.
✕
The EnglishJames Legge, not Confucius Translation
Confucius’s sayings were recorded in Classical Chinese: 知者樂水，仁者樂山. The familiar English sentence is the Scottish sinologist James Legge’s rendering, printed at BOOK VI, CHAP. XXI of his Confucian Analects ↗. Quote sites reproduce Legge’s Victorian phrasing as though it were Confucius’s own words.
✕
The bookCompiled by his followers Provenance
The Analects is a collection of the Master’s remarks assembled by disciples after his death in 479 BC, compiled over a period of around two hundred years ↗ and reaching final form later still. “Confucius said” here means “his students recorded him saying” — solid ancient testimony, not a manuscript in his hand.
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The neighboursLaozi, Xunzi and anonymous moderns Not Confucius
Lines that travel in the same quote-lists genuinely are not his. Wikiquote’s misattributed section ↗ assigns “the journey of a thousand miles” to Laozi’s Tao Te Ching, “I hear and I forget” to Xunzi, and dates “choose a job you love” to a 1985 attribution.
✓Real Confucius, real book: the passage is Analects, Book VI, and the Chinese Text Project prints Legge’s English right beside the original 知者樂水，仁者樂山 ↗. Just credit the English to Legge.
Context
Why it mattered
Confucius is drawing a contrast, not a ranking. The Chinese pairs 知者 — the knowing or wise — with 仁者, the possessor of ren, the central Confucian virtue that Legge renders “the virtuous.” Then it runs three parallels in a row: water against hills, motion against stillness, joy against long life. Two temperaments, both admired.
The line travels well because it works as scenery. Quoted alone, the first clause reads as a pleasant thought about lakes and hillsides; in place, it is the opening move of a compact sketch of character, and the payoff is the pair at the end — the wise are joyful, the virtuous are long-lived.
“The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous are long-lived.”
More on the translation
Legge’s “virtuous” is doing heavy lifting. The character is 仁 (ren), the keystone Confucian virtue, Englished elsewhere as humaneness, benevolence or goodness; “virtuous” is a Victorian choice, not a dictionary equivalent. Similarly, 山 is the ordinary word for mountain — Legge’s “hills” is the gentler English option.
None of that makes the quotation wrong. It makes it Legge’s. If you want Confucius’s own words, they are 知者樂水，仁者樂山.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Confucius was a teacher and official in the state of Lu who rose to Minister of Crime before devoting his life to teaching. He wrote no book: aphorisms from his teaching were compiled into the Analects only many years after his death, by his disciples and later followers. He is also one of the most-forged names in all of quotation — which is exactly why a line that really is his is worth marking as such.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
The Analects, Book VI (Legge, 1861)
Confucius, The Analects, Book VI, Chap. XXI, trans. James Legge, in The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean (London: Trübner & Co., 1861); rev. 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1893). The same passage is numbered 6.23 at the Chinese Text Project.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills’?” Last verified 4 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-wise-find-pleasure-in-water-the-virtuous-find-pleasure/