"
Whenever Tsz-kung drew comparisons from others, the Master would say,
"Ah, how wise and great you must have become! Now I have no time to do
that."
Again, "My great concern is, not that men do not know me, but that they
cannot."
Again, "If a man refrain from making preparations against his being
imposed upon, and from counting upon others' want of good faith towards
him, while he is foremost to perceive what is passing--surely that is a
wise and good man."
Wi-shang Mau accosted Confucius, saying, "Kiu, how comes it that you
manage to go perching and roosting in this way? Is it not because you
show yourself so smart a speaker, now?"
"I should not dare do that," said Confucius. "Tis that I am sick of
men's immovableness and deafness to reason."
"In a well-bred horse," said he, "what one admires is not its speed, but
its good points."
Some one asked, "What say you of the remark, 'Requite enmity with
kindness'?"
"How then," he answered, "would you requite kindness? Requite enmity
with straightforwardness, and kindness with kindness."
"Ah! no one knows me!" he once exclaimed.
"Sir," said Tsz-kung, "how comes it to pass that no one knows you?"
"While I murmur not against Heaven," continued the Master, "nor cavil at
men; while I stoop to learn and aspire to penetrate into things that are
high; yet 'tis Heaven alone knows what I am.
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