analects excerpts 論語抄 translated by Arthur Waley

Book 1 學而

1. The Master said, To learn and at due times to repeat what one has learnt, is that not after all a pleasure? That friends should come to one from afar, is this not after all delightful? To remain unsoured even though one’s merits are unrecognized by others, is that not after all what is expected of a gentleman?

子曰, 學而時習之,不亦說乎。有朋自遠方來,不亦樂乎。人不知而不慍,不亦君子乎。

16. The Master said, (the good man) does not grieve that other people do not recognize his merits. His only anxiety is lest he should fail to recognize theirs.

子曰, 不患人之不己知,患不知人也。

Book 2 為政

4. The Master said, At fifteen I set my heart upon learning. At thirty, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground. At fourty, I no longer suffered from perplexities. At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of heaven. At sixty, I heard them with docile ear. At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desire no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.

子曰,吾十有五而志于學,三十而立,四十而不惑,五十而知天命,六十而耳順,七十而從心所欲,不踰矩。

6. Meng Wu-Po asked about the treatment of parents. The Master said, Behave in such a way that your father and mother have no anxiety about you, except concerning your health.

孟武伯問孝。子曰,父母唯其疾之憂。

12. The master said, A gentleman is not an implement.

子曰,君子不器。

13. Tzu-kung asked about the true gentleman. The master said, he does not preach what he practices till he has practiced what he preaches.

子貢問君子。子曰,先行其言,而後從之。

14. The master said, a gentleman can see a question from all sides without bias. The small man is biased and can see a question from one side.

子曰,君子周而不比,小人比而不周。

15. The Master said, ‘he who learns but does not think, is lost.’ he who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

子曰,學而不思則罔,思而不學則殆。

17. The Master said, Yu, shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to recognize that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to recognize that you do not know it. That is knowledge.

子曰,由,誨女知之乎。知之為知之,不知為不知,是知也。

21. Someone, when talking to Master K’ung, said, How is it that you are not in the publica service? The Master said, The Book says: ‘Be filial, only be filial and friendly towards your brothers, and you will be contributing to government.’ There are other sorts of service quite different from what you mean by ‘service.’

或謂孔子曰,子奚不為政? 子曰, 云,孝乎惟孝、友于兄弟,施於有政。是亦為政,奚其為為政。

Book 3

Book 4 里仁

9. The Master said, A Knight whose heart is set upon the Way, but who is ashamed of wearing shabby clothes and eating coarse food, is not worth calling into counsel.

子曰:士志於道,而恥惡衣惡食者,未足與議也。

14. The Master said, He does not mind not being in office; all he minds about is whether he has qualities that entitle him to office. He does not mind failing to get recognition; he is too busy doing the things that entitle him to recognition. 

子曰,不患無位,患所以立;不患莫己知,求為可知也。

25. The Master said, Moral force never dwells in solitude; it will always bring neighbors.

子曰,德不孤,必有鄰。

Book 5 公冶長

9. Tsai Yu used to sleep during the day. The Master said, Rotten wood cannot be carved, not a wall of dried dung be trowelled. What use is there is my scolding him any more?

宰予晝寢。子曰,朽木不可雕也,糞土之牆不可杇也,於予與何誅。

10. The Master said, Ch’eng! He is at the mercy of his desires. How can he be called steadfast (= impervious to outside influences, intimidations, etc.)?

子曰,吾未見剛者。或對曰,申棖。子曰,棖也慾,焉得剛。

14. Tzu-kung asked saying, Why was K’ung Wen Tzu called Wen (The Cultured)? The Master said, Because he was diligent and so fond of learning that he was not ashamed to pick up knowledge even from his inferiors.

子貢問曰,孔文子何以謂之文也。子曰,敏而好學,不恥下問,(是以謂之文也)

Book 6 雍也

3. There is a saying, A gentleman helps out the necessitous; he does not make the rich richer still.

吾聞之也,君子周急不繼富。

17. The Master said, Man’s very life is honesty, in that without it he will be lucky indeed if he escapes with his life.

子曰,人之生也直,罔之生也幸而免。

18. The Master said, To prefer it is better than only to know it. To delight in it is better than merely to prefer it. 

子曰,知之者不如好之者,好之者不如樂之者。

19. The Master said, To men who have risen at all above the middling sort, one may talk of things higher yet. But to men who are at all below the middling sort it is useless to talk of things that are above them.

子曰,中人以上,可以語上也。中人以下,不可以語上也。

Book 7  述而

8. The Master said, Only one who bursts with eagerness do I instruct; only one who bubbles with excitement, do I enlighten. If I hold up one corner and a man cannot come back to me with the other three, I do not continue the lesson.

子曰,不憤不啟,不悱不發,舉一隅不以三隅反,則不復也。

10. The Master said, The man who was ready to ‘beard a tiger or rush a river’ without caring whether he lived or died – that sort of man I should not take. I should certainly take someone who approached difficulties with due caution and who preferred to succeed by strategy.

子曰,暴虎馮河,死而無悔者,吾不與也。必也臨事而懼,好謀而成者也。

Book 8

Book 9  子罕

7. The Master said, Do I regard myself as a possessor of wisdom? Far from it. But if even a simple peasant comes in all sincerity and asks me a question, I am ready to thrash the matter out, with all its pros and cons, to the very end.

子曰,吾有知乎哉。無知也。有鄙夫問於我,空空如也,我叩其兩端而竭焉。

27. The Master said, Only when the year grows cold do we see that the pine and cypress are the last to fade.

子曰,歲寒,然後知松柏之後彫也。

Book 10

Book 11  先進

3. The Master said, Hui was not any help to me; he accepted everything I said.

子曰,回也非助我者也,於吾言無所不說。

11. The Master said, Till you know about the living, how are you to know about the dead?

季路問事鬼神。子曰,未能事人,焉能事鬼。敢問死。曰,未知生,焉知死。

Book 12

Book 13  子路

9. Jan Ch’iu said, When one has enriched them, what next should be done for them? The

Master said, Instruct them.

冉有曰,既庶矣。又何加焉。曰,富之。曰,既富矣,又何加焉。曰,教之。

23. The Master said, The true gentleman is conciliatory but not accommodating. Common people are accommodating but not conciliatory.

子曰,君子和而不同,小人同而不和

24. Tzu-kung asked, saying, What would you feel about a man who was loved by all his fellow-villagers? The Master said, That is not enough. What would you feel about a man who was hated by all his fellow villagers? The master said, That is not enough. Best of all would be that the good people in his village loved him and the bad hated him.

子貢問曰,鄉人皆好之,何如。子曰,未可也。鄉人皆惡之,何如。子曰,未可也。不如鄉人之善者好之,其不善者惡之。

Book 14  憲問

3. The Master said, The knight of the Way who thinks only of sitting quietly at home is not worthy to be called a knight.

子曰,士而懷居,不足以為士矣。

11. The Master said, To be poor and not resent it is far harder than to be rich, yet not preposterous.

子曰,貧而無怨難,富而無驕易。

25. The Master said, In old days men studied for the sake of self-improvement; nowadays men study in order to impress other people.

子曰,古之學者為己,今之學者為人。

Book 15  衛靈公

7. The Master said, Not to talk to one who could be talked to, is to waste a man. To talk to

those who cannot be talked to, is to waste one’s words. ‘He who is truly wise never wastes a man’; but on the other hand, he never wastes his words.

子曰,可與言而不與之言,失人;不可與言而與之言,失言。知者不失人,亦不失言。

11. The Master said, He who will not worry about what is far off will soon find something worse than worry close at hand.

子曰,人無遠慮,必有近憂。

20. The Master said, ‘The demands that a gentleman makes are upon himself; those that a small man makes are upon others.’

子曰,君子求諸己,小人求諸人。

21. The Master said, a gentleman is proud, but not quarrelsome, allies himself with individuals, but not with parties.

子曰,君子矜而不爭,群而不黨。

22. The Master said, a gentleman does not: Accept men because of what they say; Nor reject sayings, because the speaker is what he is.

子曰,君子不以言舉人,不以人廢言。

26. The Master said, Clever talk can confound the working of moral force, just as small impatiences can confound great projects.

子曰,巧言亂德,小不忍則亂大謀。

29. The Master said, To have faults and to be making no effort to amend them is to have faults indeed!

子曰,過而不改,是謂過矣。

30. The Master said, I once spent a whole day without food and a whole night without sleep, in order to meditate. It was no use. It is better to learn.

子曰,吾嘗終日不食,終夜不寢,以思,無益,不如學也。

Bool 16–20