"What rudeness would there be," he replied, "if a 'superior man' was living in their midst?"
Once he remarked, "After I came back from Wei to Lu the music was put right, and each of the Festal Odes and Hymns was given its appropriate place and use."
"Ah! which one of these following," he asked on one occasion, "are to be found exemplified in me—proper service rendered to superiors when abroad; duty to father and elder brother when at home; duty that shrinks from no exertion when dear ones die; and keeping free from the confusing effects of wine?"
Standing once on the bank of a mountain stream, he said (musingly), "Like this are those that pass away—no cessation, day or night!"
Other sayings:—
"Take an illustration from the making of a hill. A simple basketful is wanting to complete it, and the work stops. So I stop short.
"Take an illustration from the levelling of the ground. Suppose again just one basketful is left, when the work has so progressed. There I desist!
"Ah! it was Hwúi, was it not? who, when I had given him his lesson, was the unflagging one!
"Alas for Hwúi! I saw him ever making progress. I never saw him stopping short.
"Blade, but no bloom—or else bloom, but no produce; aye, that is the way with some!