If Your Desire Is For

How Great Is The Path Proper To The Sage! Like Overflowing Water, It Sends Forth And Nourishes All Things, And Rises Up To The Height Of Heaven. All-complete Is Its Greatness! It Embraces The Three Hundred Rules Of Ceremony, And The Three Thousand Rules Of Demeanor. It Waits For The Proper Man, And Then It Is Trodden. Hence It Is Said, 'only By Perfect Virtue Can The Perfect Path, In All Its Courses, Be Made A Fact.'

When A Man Comes To Me, I Accept Him At His Best, Not At His Worst. Why Make So Much Ado? When A Man Washes His Hands Before Paying A Visit, And You Receive Him In That Clean State, You Do Not Thereby Stand Surety For His Always Having Been Clean In The Past.

The Master Said, "to Study, And Then In A Timely Fashion To Practice What You Have Learned - Is This Not Satisfying? To Have Companions Arrive From Afar - Is This Not A Joy? To Remain Unrecognized By Others And Yet Remain Free Of Resentment - Is This Not The Mark Of The Gentleman?"

The Gentleman Desires To Be Halting In Speech But Quick In Action.

By The Ruler's Cultivation Of His Own Character There Is Set Up The Example Of The Course Which All Should Pursue.