Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Brain Fodder from Confucius

Hey all. I've been reading some Confucian writings and I thought I'd share some thoughts I found particularly interesting. I do suggest reading them. Stopping and thinking about these can be quite rewarding.

  • Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
  • Have no friends not equal to yourself.
  • When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.
  • The accomplished scholar is not a utensil.
  • To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.
  • The mind of the superior man (Chun-Tsze) is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.
  • Chi Wan thought thrice, and then acted. When the Master was informed of it, he said, "Twice may do."

1 comment:

Kalithos said...

oh i agree that it's a worthwhile read, but I can never understand the translations. Not that the original is that much easier to read and understand.. but it seems to make just that much more sense to me. ><