A FEW CONFUCIUS SAYINGS

Confucius, The Essential Confucius: The Heart of Confucius Teachings in Authentic I Ching Order: A Compendium of Ethical Wisdom, translated and presented by Thomas Cleary (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992) (From Cleary's "Introduction": "Confucius believed in the regeneration of public and private conscience through education and the influence of unifying cultural ideals." "Confucius believed that the conduct of the affairs of a nation would benefit from maximum participation in government by cultivated people whose intellects and emotions had been developed and matured by conscious culture. As an educator, he helped people study a variety of subjects such as history political science, sociology, literature, music, etiquette, and philosophy to deepen the human understanding. This study, he believed, could help people prepare themselves to take on deliberate social responsibility." Id. at 1.  Confucius said: "At first the way I dealt with people was to listen to their words and trust they would act on them. Now I listen to their words and observe whether they act on them, It was within my power to change this." Id. at 21 (and again at 131). "When you are away for home, be as if meeting an important guest. When you employ people, be as if you were in charge of an important ceremony. What you do not like, do not pass on to others. Have no enmity in your land, no enmity at home." Id. at 27. "If you like humaneness but don't like learning, it degenerates into folly. If you like knowledge but don't like learning, it degenerates into looseness. If you like trust but don't like learning, it degenerates into depredation. If you like honesty but don't like learning, t degenerates into stricture. If you like bravery but don't like learning, it degenerates into disorder. If you like strength but don't like learning, it degenerates into wildness." Id. at 45. "There are those who act without knowing; I will have none of this. To hear a lot, choose the good, and follow it, to see a lot and learn to recognize it: this is next to knowledge." Id. at 67. "Ideal people are universal and not clannish. Small-minded people are clannish and not universal." "When I do something in a group of three, I always find my teacher there. I choose the good and follow it, and change what is not good." "Cultivated people harmonize without imitating. Immature people imitate without harmonizing." Id. at 91. "Learn a lot, eliminate the doubtful, and speak discreetly about the rest; then there will be little blame. See a lot, eliminate the perilous, act prudently on the rest; then there will be little regret. When your words are seldom blamed and your actions seldom regretted, employment will be there." Id. at 115. "Be an exemplary man of learning, not a trivial pedant." Id. at 121. "Don't talk about what is already done; don't remonstrate about what is already over; don't criticize what has already happened." Id. at 129. "When you see wise people, think of becoming equal to them. When you see unwise people, reflect inwardly on yourself." "Id may be possible to study together without being able to go on the way together. It maybe possible to go on the way together without being able to take a stand together. It maybe possible to take a stand together without being able to plan together." "Cultivated people are strict but do not contend; they associate with others by do not join factions." Id. at 131. "A cultivated person does not promote people on account of what they say, nor ignore what is said because of who is saying it." Id. at 145.).