Confucius said, “The commander of an army of three divisions may be taken away, but the will of an ordinary man cannot be taken from him.”
Confucius said, “There are cases where sprouts appear but no blossoms; there are cases where blossoms appear but no fruit!”
When speaking of Yan Hui, Confucius said, “What a pity! I saw him constantly advancing – I never saw him stop.”
Confucius said, “The one who never shows laziness when I speak to him – is it not Yan Hui?”
Confucius said, “Suppose you are piling up earth to make a mountain. If you stop just one basket short of completion – that stopping is my own doing. Suppose you are leveling ground, and even if you have only dumped one basket – you are advancing, because I am moving forward.”
Confucius said, “The phoenix no longer appears; the Yellow River no longer reveals its chart. Alas, my cause is finished!”
Liu Bei is not the most brilliant strategist, nor the fiercest warrior, nor the most cunning politician of the Three Kingdoms. Yet across centuries – through both historical records like Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi) and the romanticized drama of Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms – he remains the…
The poor man sweeps his floor until it is spotless. The poor woman combs her hair until it is neat and tidy. Neither produces a wonderful sight, but these actions bespeak a sensibility of elegance.