The collection / 384 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'The superior man in everything considers righteousness to be essential. He performs it according to the rules of propriety. He brings it forth in humility. He completes it with sincerity. This is indeed a superior man.'

Confucius (traditional attribution) / quote

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02c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. He is not distressed by men's not knowing him.'

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03c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'The superior man dislikes the thought of his name not being mentioned after his death.'

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04c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others.'

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05c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'The superior man is dignified, but does not wrangle. He is sociable, but not a partizan.'

Confucius (traditional attribution) / quote

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06c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'The superior man does not promote a man simply on account of his words, nor does he put aside good words because of the man.'

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07c. 515 BC

1. The Master said, 'In my dealings with men, whose evil do I blame, whose goodness do I praise, beyond what is proper? If I do sometimes exceed in praise, there must be ground for it in my examination of the individual. 2. 'This people supplied the ground why the three dynasties pursued the path of straightforwardness.'

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08c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'Even in my early days, a historiographer would leave a blank in his text, and he who had a horse would lend him to another to ride. Now, alas! there are no such things.'

Confucius (traditional attribution) / quote

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09c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'Specious words confound virtue. Want of forbearance in small matters confounds great plans.'

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10c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'When the multitude hate a man, it is necessary to examine into the case. When the multitude like a man, it is necessary to examine into the case.'

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11c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'A man can enlarge the principles which he follows; those principles do not enlarge the man.'

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12c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'To have faults and not to reform them,— this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.'

Confucius (traditional attribution) / quote

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13c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'I have been the whole day without eating, and the whole night without sleeping:— occupied with thinking. It was of no use. The better plan is to learn.'

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14c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'The object of the superior man is truth. Food is not his object. There is plowing;— even in that there is sometimes want. So with learning;— emolument may be found in it. The superior man is anxious lest he should not get truth; he is not anxious lest poverty should come upon him.'

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15c. 515 BC

1. The Master said, 'When a man's knowledge is sufficient to attain, and his virtue is not sufficient to enable him to hold, whatever he may have gained, he will lose again. 2. 'When his knowledge is sufficient to attain, and he has virtue enough to hold fast, if he cannot govern with dignity, the people will not respect him. 3. 'When his knowledge is sufficient to attain, and he has virtue enough to hold fast; when he governs also with dignity, yet if he try to move the people contrary to the rules of propriety:— full excellence is not reached.'

Confucius (traditional attribution) / quote

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16c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'The superior man cannot be known in little matters; but he may be intrusted with great concerns. The small man may not be intrusted with great concerns, but he may be known in little matters.'

Confucius (traditional attribution) / quote

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17c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'Virtue is more to man than either water or fire. I have seen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a man die from treading the course of virtue.'

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18c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'Let every man consider virtue as what devolves on himself. He may not yield the performance of it even to his teacher.'

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19c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'The superior man is correctly firm, and not firm merely.'

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20c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'A minister, in serving his prince, reverently discharges his duties, and makes his emolument a secondary consideration.'

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21c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'In teaching there should be no distinction of classes.'

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22c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'Those whose courses are different cannot lay plans for one another.'

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23c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'In language it is simply required that it convey the meaning.'

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24c. 515 BC

The Master said, 'By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.'

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