Tsz-kung was consulting him, and asked, "What say you of a person who was liked by all in his village?"
"That will scarcely do," he answered.
"What, then, if they all disliked him?"
"That, too," said he, "is scarcely enough. Better if he were liked by the good folk in the village, and disliked by the bad."
"The superior man," he once observed, "is easy to serve, but difficult to please. Try to please him by the adoption of wrong principles, and you will fail. Also, when such a one employs others, he uses them according to their capacity. The inferior man is, on the other hand, difficult to serve, but easy to please. Try to please him by the adoption of wrong principles, and you will succeed. And when he employs others he requires them to be fully prepared for everything."
Again, "The superior man can be high without being haughty. The inferior man can be haughty if not high."
"The firm, the unflinching, the plain and simple, the slow to speak," said he once, "are approximating towards their duty to their fellow-men."
Tsz-lu asked how he would characterize one who might fitly be called an educated gentleman. The master replied, "He who can properly be so-called will have in him a seriousness of purpose, a habit of controlling himself, and an agreeableness of manner: among his friends and associates the seriousness and the self-control, and among his brethren the agreeableness of manner."
"Let good and able men discipline the people for seven years," said the
Master, "and after that they may do to go to war."
But, said he, "To lead an undisciplined people to war—that I call throwing them away."