"This people supplied the ground why the three dynasties pursued the pathof straightforwardness."The Master said, "Even in my early days, a historiographer would leave ablank in his text, and he who had a horse would lend him to another toride. Now, alas! there are no such things."The Master said, "Specious words confound virtue. Want of forbearance insmall matters confounds great plans."The Master said, "When the multitude hate a man, it is necessary to examineinto the case. When the multitude like a man, it is necessary to examineinto the case."The Master said, "A man can enlarge the principles which he follows; thoseprinciples do not enlarge the man."The Master said, "To have faults and not to reform them,-this, indeed,should be pronounced having faults."The Master said, "I have been the whole day without eating, and the wholenight without sleeping:-occupied with thinking. It was of no use. betterplan is to learn."The Master said, "The object of the superior man is truth. Food is not hisobject. There is plowing;-even in that there is sometimes want. So withlearning;-emolument may be found in it. The superior man is anxious lest heshould not get truth; he is not anxious lest poverty should come upon him."The Master said, "When a man's knowledge is sufficient to attain, and hisvirtue is not sufficient to enable him to hold, whatever he may havegained, he will lose again. "When his knowledge is sufficient to attain, and he has virtue enough tohold fast, if he cannot govern with dignity, the people will not respecthim. "When his knowledge is sufficient to attain, and he has virtue enough tohold fast; when he governs also with dignity, yet if he try to move thepeople contrary to the rules of propriety:-full excellence is not reached."The Master said, "The superior man cannot be known in little matters; buthe may be intrusted with great concerns. The small man may not be intrustedwith great concerns, but he may be known in little matters."The Master said, "Virtue is more to man than either water or fire. I haveseen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a mandie from treading the course of virtue."The Master said, "Let every man consider virtue as what devolves onhimself. He may not yield the performance of it even to his teacher."The Master said, "The superior man is correctly firm, and not firm merely."The Master said, "A minister, in serving his prince, reverently dischargeshis duties, and makes his emolument a secondary consideration."The Master said, "In teaching there should be no distinction of classes."The Master said, "Those whose courses are different cannot lay plans forone another."The Master said, "In language it is simply required that it convey themeaning."The music master, Mien, having called upon him, when they came to thesteps, the Master said, "Here are the steps." When they came to the mat forthe guest to sit upon, he said, "Here is the mat." When all were seated,the Master informed him, saying, "So and so is here; so and so is here."The music master, Mien, having gone out, Tsze-chang asked, saying. "Is itthe rule to tell those things to the music master?"The Master said, "Yes. This is certainly the rule for those who lead theblind."
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