Caution – Stone Chimes

7.11

Confucius said to Yan Hui, “Acting when called upon to act and retiring when not needed. Only you and I are like this.”

Zilu asked, “If you were leading an army, who would you take as a lieutenant?”

Confucius replied, “Not the kind of person who likes to wrestle tigers or rush across a river on foot. Not someone who rushes headlong toward death without a second thought. I’d like someone who approaches the work with caution, someone who plans, and someone who sees the thing through to completion.”

7.13

Confucius was cautious about fasting, war, and sickness.

8.2

Confucius said, “Without ritual, being respectful becomes tiresome, caution becomes timidness, courage becomes recklessness, and straightforwardness becomes rudeness.

“When a person with a high office is generous to family and kin, the common people will be inspired to be humane. If old friends and acquaintances are not forgotten, the common people will honor their obligations, too.”

13.27

Confucius said, “Firmness, resolution, simplicity and caution in speaking—that’s close to humaneness.”

14.3

Confucius said, “When the Way prevails in your state, be daring in your speech and your action. When the Way does not prevail in your state, be daring in your conduct but cautious in your speech.”

15.26

Confucius said, “I can remember a time when scribes would leave a gap when they were unsure about a word and horse owners would lend their horses out to an expert to be assessed. This doesn’t happen anymore.”