4.16 The Master said, “A gentleman takes as much trouble to discover what is right as lesser men take to discover what will pay.”
4.11 The Master (Confucius) said, “Where gentlemen set their hearts upon virtue, the commoners set theirs upon the soil. Where gentlemen think only of punishments, the commoners think only of exemptions.”
The Master said: “The noble person practices inclusive integrity — they embrace all with impartial care, avoiding factional alliances. The petty person forms exclusive cliques — they bond through self-interest, lacking ethical consistency.