Confucius's famous sayings:
1. Knowing things silently, being tireless in learning, and never tiring in teaching others, what is that for me?
Translation: Memorize (knowledge learned) silently, learn without feeling bored, teach without feeling tired, what is the reason for this for me?
2. If you are so angry that you forget to eat, if you are happy you forget your worries, you don’t know that old age is coming.
Translation: When you study hard, you forget to eat. When you are intoxicated with knowledge, you forget about sorrow. You don’t know that aging is coming.
3. When three of us travel together, we must be our teacher. Choose the good ones and follow them, and change the bad ones.
Translation: Several people are walking together, and one of them must be my teacher. You should choose their strengths to learn from, and pay attention to correcting their shortcomings.
4. Look ahead and look behind. Master is always good at seducing people. He persuades me with words and invites me with courtesy.
Translation: (For the teacher’s knowledge and morality), I looked up, and the more I looked, the higher I felt; I studied hard, and the more I studied, the more I felt it was inexhaustible. It seems to be in front, and suddenly it seems to be behind. The teacher was good at guiding me step by step, using various classics to enrich my knowledge, and using various etiquette to restrain my words and deeds, making it impossible for me to stop learning until I exhausted all my strength.
5. He is sensitive and eager to learn, and he is not ashamed to ask questions. This is why he is called "literary".
Translation: It means not to be ashamed to ask for advice from people with lower status and knowledge than yourself. Therefore, the word "文" can be used as his posthumous title.
6. If you learn without thinking, you will be in vain; if you think without learning, you will be in danger.
Translation: If you study without thinking, you will be blinded by the appearance of knowledge; if you think without learning, you will be more dangerous because of doubts.