Quotations from Confucius

551-479BC

I know that birds can fly; that fish can swim; that animals can run. Things that run can be caught in a cage. What can swim can be trapped in nets. Those that fly can be shot down with arrows. But what to do with the dragon I do not know. It rises on the clouds and the wind. Today I have met Lao-tzu and he is like the dragon.

Quoted in the Shih-chi (Historical Records)

If many years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the study of the Book of Changes and might thereby manage to avoid great mistakes.

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If you choose a job that you like, you will never have to work a day in your life.

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In the morning, hear the Way; in the evening, die content!

The Analects, book 4

The superior man understands what is right. The inferior man understands what will sell.

The Analects, book 4

To know that you know, and to know that you don't know - that is the real wisdom.

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When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there to fear?

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