Confucius 孔子
teacher · Lu, Spring and Autumn China · 551–479 BC
A thinker and teacher of the Spring and Autumn period. He wandered for fourteen years looking for a state that would use him, and was never employed. The Analects is the book in which his pupils gathered what he said.
Posts
5th century BC · On finding a pupil napping
Zai Yu slept in the daytime. The Master said: "Rotten wood cannot be carved, and a wall of dung cannot be trowelled. What is the use of scolding Yu?"
宰予晝寢。子曰：「朽木不可雕也，糞土之牆不可杇也。於予與何誅？」Analects, book 5 (Gongye Chang)
5th century BC
"The young are to be held in awe. How do we know that those to come will not be the equals of those now?"
子曰：「後生可畏，焉知來者之不如今也？」Analects, book 9 (Zihan)
5th century BC
Standing by a river, the Master said: "What passes away is like this! It does not stop, day or night."
子在川上曰：「逝者如斯夫！不舍晝夜。」Analects, book 9 (Zihan)
5th century BC
"No one knows me!" Zigong asked: "Why do you say that no one knows you?" "I do not resent heaven and I do not blame people. I study what is below and reach what is above. The one that knows me is heaven, perhaps."
子曰：「莫我知也夫！」子貢曰：「何爲其莫知子也？」子曰：「不怨天，不尤人，下學而上達。知我者其天乎！」Analects, book 14 (Xianwen)
5th century BC
"Eating coarse rice and drinking water, with a bent arm for a pillow: there is joy in that too. Wealth and rank gained without right are to me like floating clouds."
子曰：「飯疏食飲水，曲肱而枕之，樂亦在其中矣。不義而富且貴，於我如浮雲。」Analects, book 7 (Shu'er)
5th century BC
"I have never yet seen anyone who loves virtue as much as he loves beauty."
子曰：「吾未見好德如好色者也。」Analects, book 9 (Zihan)
5th century BC · On visiting the small town his pupil Ziyou governed. The joke: rites and music, in a town this small?
The Master went to Wucheng and heard the sound of strings and singing. He broke into a smile and said, "Why use an ox-knife to kill a chicken?"
子之武城，聞弦歌之聲。夫子莞爾而笑，曰：「割雞焉用牛刀？」Analects, book 17 (Yang Huo)
5th century BC · To the pupils standing by. Yan is Ziyou's given name
The Master said, "My friends, Yan is right. What I said just now was only a joke."
子曰：「二三子！偃之言是也。前言戲之耳。」Analects, book 17 (Yang Huo)
5th century BC
"To hear something on the road and repeat it on the path is to throw virtue away."
子曰：「道聽而塗說，德之棄也。」Analects, book 17 (Yang Huo)
5th century BC
"The gentleman is in harmony with others without becoming the same as them; the small man becomes the same and is not in harmony."
子曰：「君子和而不同，小人同而不和。」Analects, book 13 (Zilu)
5th century BC
"Do not worry that others do not know you. Worry that you do not know others."
子曰：「不患人之不己知，患不知人也。」Analects, book 1 (Xue Er)
5th century BC
"When three of us walk together, there is sure to be a teacher for me among them. I pick out what is good in them and follow it, and what is not good I correct in myself."
子曰：「三人行，必有我師焉。擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之。」Analects, book 7 (Shu Er)
5th century BC · To his pupil Zilu
"To say you know when you know, and to say you do not when you do not: that is knowledge."
知之爲知之，不知爲不知，是知也。Analects, book 2 (Wei Zheng)
5th century BC
"You must not fail to know your parents' age. It is at once a reason for joy and a reason for fear."
子曰：「父母之年，不可不知也。一則以喜，一則以懼。」Analects, book 4 (Li Ren)
5th century BC · His pupils' record of the Master's habits at table
He did not dislike his rice finely polished, nor his raw meat cut thin.
食不厭精，膾不厭細。Analects, book 10 (Xiang Dang)
5th century BC
"At fifteen I set my heart on learning. At thirty I stood firm. At forty I had no doubts. At fifty I knew the will of heaven. At sixty my ear was attuned. At seventy I could follow what my heart desired without overstepping the line."
子曰：「吾十有五而志于學，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳順，七十而從心所欲，不踰矩。」Analects, book 2 (Weizheng)
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