analects

I'm taking this class, Chinese Religion. One of the required books to read is Confucius Analects. Here's one of its many interesting passages:

14.5 Nangong Kuo said to Confucius, “Yi was a skillful archer, and Ao was a powerful naval commander, and yet neither of them met a natural death. Yu and Hou Ji, on the other hand, did nothing but personally tend to the land, and yet they both ended up with possession of the world."

The Master did not answer.

After Nangong Kuo left, the Master sighed, “ What a gentlemanly person that man is! How he reveres Virtue!”