Confucius said, “There are three kinds of beneficial friends and three kinds of harmful friends. Friendship with the upright, friendship with the trustworthy, and friendship with the well-informed – these are beneficial. Friendship with the fawning, friendship with the insincerely agreeable, and friendship with the glibly eloquent – these are harmful.”
The Master said, “The noble person seeks the Way, not sustenance. In farming, hunger may still occur; in studying, official emolument often follows. Thus, the noble person worries about the Way, not about poverty.”
The Master said, “I once spent a whole day without eating and a whole night without sleeping, devoting myself entirely to thinking – but gained nothing. It is better to study than to ponder in vain.”
The Master said, “To have faults and not correct them – that is truly a fault.”
The Master said, “It is humanity that enlarges the Way, not the Way that enlarges humanity.”
The Master said, “The noble person seeks from himself; the petty person seeks from others.”
The Master said, “The noble person worries that after his death, his name will not be commensurate with his virtue – that he will not be remembered worthily.”
The Master said, “The noble person worries about his own lack of ability, not about others’ failure to recognize him.”