"To give ready assent with a view to worm out the wishes of others, good and bad alike, is to be a hypocrite.
"These eight blemishes cause a man to throw others into confusion and bring injury upon himself. The superior man will not have him for a friend; the enlightened prince will not employ him as his minister.
"To love the conduct of great affairs, and to introduce change into established order with a view to gain reputation,—this is ambition.
"To strive to get all into one's own hands, and to usurp what should be at the disposal of others,—this is greed.
"To know one's faults but not to correct them, to receive admonition but only to plunge deeper,—this is obstinacy.
"To suffer those who are like oneself, but as for those unlike not to credit them with the virtues they really possess,—this is bigotry.
"Such are the four things which obstruct business. And only he who can put aside the above eight and abstain from the above four is fit for instruction."
At this Confucius heaved a sigh of distress. Then having twice prostrated himself, he arose and said, "Twice was I driven from Lu. I was tabooed in Wei. My tree was cut down in Sung. I was surrounded by the Ch'êns and the Ts'ais. I know not what my fault is that I should have suffered these four persecutions."
"Dear me!" said the old man in a vexed tone, "How slow of perception you are.
"There was once a man who was so afraid of his shadow and so disliked his own footsteps that he determined to run away from them. But the oftener he raised his feet the more footsteps he made, and though he ran very hard his shadow never left him. From this he inferred that he went too slowly, and ran as hard as he could without resting, the consequence being that his strength broke down and he died. He was not aware that by going into the shade he would have got rid of his shadow, and that by keeping still he would have put an end to his footsteps. Fool that he was!