Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics)

by Confucius

9.23 The Master said, “We should look upon the younger generation with awe because how are we to know that those who come after us will not prove our equals? Once, however, a man reaches the age of forty or fifty without having learned anything, we can conclude from this fact alone that he is not worthy of being held in awe.”

As Fan Ziyu comments, “If what the ruler says is not good and no one opposes it, then dutiful advice will never reach his ears. When the ruler is daily growing more arrogant and the ministers are daily growing more obsequious, there has never been a case when the state was not lost.”

The Master said, “Demand much of yourself, but ask little of others, and you will keep resentment at a distance.”

When the Master went to Wucheng, he heard the sound of stringed instruments and song. Smiling gently, he remarked, “Why use an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken?”