Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
The Sayings of Confucius.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
IV
THE MASTER said: “Love makes a spot beautiful: who chooses not to dwell in love, has he got wisdom?”The Master said: “Loveless men cannot bear need long, they cannot bear fortune long. Loving hearts find peace in love; clever heads find profit in it.”The Master said: “Love can alone love others, or hate others.”The Master said: “A heart set on love will do no wrong.”The Master said: “Wealth and honours are what men desire; but abide not in them by help of wrong. Lowliness and want are hated of men; but forsake them not by help of wrong.
“Shorn of love, is a gentleman worthy the name? Not for one moment may a gentleman sin against love; not in flurry and haste, nor yet in utter overthrow.”The Master said: “A friend to love, a foe to evil, I have yet to meet. A friend to love will set nothing higher. In love’s service, a foe to evil will let no evil touch him. Were a man to give himself to love, but for one day, I have seen no one whose strength would fail him. Such men there may be, but I have not seen one.”The Master said: “A man and his faults are of a piece. By watching his faults we learn whether love be his.”The Master said: “To learn the truth at daybreak and die at eve were enough.”The Master said: “A scholar in search of truth who is ashamed of poor clothes and poor food it is idle talking to.”The Master said: “A gentleman has no likes and no dislikes below heaven. He follows right.”The Master said: “Gentlemen cherish worth; the vulgar cherish dirt. Gentlemen trust in justice; the vulgar trust in favour.”The Master said: “The chase of gain is rich in hate.”The Master said: “What is it to sway a kingdom by courteous yielding? Who cannot by courteous yielding sway a kingdom, what can he know of courtesy?”The Master said: “Be not concerned at want of place; be concerned that thou stand thyself. Sorrow not at being unknown, but seek to be worthy of note.”The Master said: “One thread, Shen, runs through all my teaching.”
“Yes,” said Tseng-tzu.
After the Master had left, the disciples asked what was meant.
Tseng-tzu said: “The Master’s teaching all hangs on faithfulness and fellow-feeling.”The Master said: “A gentleman considers what is right; the vulgar consider what will pay.”The Master said: “At sight of worth, think to grow like it. When evil meets thee, search thine own heart.”The Master said: “A father or mother may be gently chidden. If they will not bend, be the more lowly, but persevere; nor murmur if trouble follow.”The Master said: “Whilst thy father and mother live, do not wander afar. If thou must travel, hold a set course.”The Master said: “If for three years a son do not forsake his father’s ways, he may be called dutiful.”The Master said: “A father’s and a mother’s age must be borne in mind; with joy on the one hand, fear on the other.”The Master said: “Men of old were loth to speak; lest a word that they could not make good should shame them.”The Master said: “Who contains himself goes seldom wrong.”The Master said: “A gentleman wishes to be slow to speak and quick to act.”The Master said: “Good is no hermit. It has ever neighbours.”Tzu-yu said: “Preaching to princes brings disgrace, nagging at friends estrangement.”
