I give thanks for translators whose labors allow me to meditate on the teachings of sages throughout time, like David Hinton’s work with Confucius’s Analects…
1.16 The Master said: “Don’t grieve when people fail to recognize your ability. Grieve when you fail to recognize theirs.”
2.4 The Master said: “At fifteen I devoted myself to learning, and at thirty soon firm. At forty I had no doubts, and at fifty understood the Mandate of Heaven. At sixty I listened in effortless accord. And at seventy I followed the mind’s passing fancies without overstepping any bounds.”
2.6 The Master said: “If you look at their intentions, examine their motives, and scrutinize what brings them contentment—how can people hide who they are? How can they hide who they really are?”
4.14 The Master said: “Don’t worry if you have no position: worry about making yourself worthy of one. Don’t worry if you aren’t known and admired: devote yourself to a life that deserves admiration.”
4.17 The Master said: “In the presence of sages, you can see how to perfect your thoughts. In the presence of fools, you must awaken yourself.”
7.22 The Master said: “Out walking with two companions, I’m sure to be in my teacher’s company. The good in one I adopt in myself; the evil in the other I change in myself.
9.4 The Master had freed himself of four things: idle speculation, certainty, inflexibility, and conceit.
9.17 Standing beside a river, the Master said: “Everything passes away like this, day and night, never resting.”
10.15 When he was in the Grand Temple, the Master asked questions about everything he saw.
10.16 When a friend died and there was no home to which the body could be sent, he said: “Let the funeral be in my home.”
12.2 “And never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.”
14.27 The Master said: “The noble-minded say little and achieve much.”
