Motto from one of Confucius's students, Zengzi. As recorded in the book "Analects" (a.k.a. "Sayings of Confucius"). My own simple translation.
"Every day, I reflects on these three:
Did I not put my heart into things that I did?
Did I not keep my words to friends?
Did I not practice the lessons that I learnt?"
It is better to light one small candle of gratitude than to curse the darkness.
— Confucius
This is very good.
"Perhaps Ritual is no more and no less than the suppleness we need, as moral agents, to get along and to get things done, while being as minimally annoying as can be."
[Personally, I certainly could do with a bit more of such moral suppleness! :-)]
And what you say here makes me see Confucius as much more Taoist then I did before. Integrating, not into a rigid set of rules, but into the language those around me can understand.
Quiz:
Did #Confucius Really Say That?
The #Chinese #philosopher and #sage had a lot of #wise things to say. But many of the #quotes you’ve seen online were actually said by someone else.
Can you tell them apart?
https://www.mentalfloss.com/quizzes/did-confucius-really-say-that-quiz
I've spent this afternoon thinking about #Confucius, #philosophy, and the art of not being annoying.