[23] The difference lies in the set purpose of studying virtue in a systematic way, and not merely doing right when occasion offers.
[24] "The will to learn" is a necessarily vague rendering of the equally vague original. It means here a desire for moral culture, which is nothing else than the development of that inner sense of harmony and proportion (li) referred to on [p. 99]. Good instincts, according to Confucius, are not enough to produce virtues, unless they are supplemented by careful cultivation of this moral sense.
[25] A magnificent array of vestments and chalices will no more constitute a true ceremony than a number of musical instruments alone, without the brain of a composer, can produce music. The whole value of a ceremony is determined by the state of mind of the person who performs it.
[PERSONALIA]
In his moments of leisure, the Master's manner was uniformly cheerful and smiling.
If the Master happened to be dining beside one who was in mourning for his parents, he never ate a full meal. He never sang on any day in the course of which he had been bewailing a death.
The Master would never talk about prodigies, feats of strength, crime, or supernatural beings.[1]