•
Sima Niu lamented, “Everyone has brothers, but I alone have none.”Zixia consoled him, saying, “I once heard it said: ‘Life and death are determined by fate; wealth and honor depend on Heaven.’ If a noble person is reverent and never careless in conduct, and treats others with respect and propriety, then all within the…
•
When the pheasants sensed a change in human expression, they immediately took flight; after circling in the air, they settled again. Confucius, observing this, remarked, “Ah, the female pheasant on the mountain ridge – how timely she is! How perfectly she understands the right moment!” Hearing this, Zilu bowed respectfully toward the bird. It…
•
Confucius said, “Only when the year turns cold do we know that the pine and cypress are the last to shed their leaves.”
•
Mencius said: “The influence of a noble person lasts for five generations and then ends; the legacy of a petty person also ends after five generations. I never had the chance to be Confucius’s direct disciple, but I learned his Dao by privately admiring and studying through his later followers.”
•
8.16The Master said, “Impetuous, but tricky! Ingenuous, but dishonest! Simple-minded, but capable of breaking promises! To such men I can give no recognition.”
•
8.13The Master said, “Be of unwavering good faith, love learning, if attacked be ready to die for the good Way. Do not enter a State that pursues dangerous courses, nor stay in one where the people have rebelled. When the Way prevails under Heaven, then show yourself; when it does not prevail, then hide.…
•
8.6Master Zeng said, “The man to whom one could with equal confidence entrust an orphan not yet fully grown or the sovereignty of a whole State, whom the advent of no emergency however great could upset – would such a one be a true gentleman? He I think would be a true gentleman indeed.”