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.”