“Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Mean! Rare have they long been among the people, who could practice it!”

Source: The Doctrine of the Mean

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Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher -551–-479 BC

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“Nothing is more wonderful, or honours virtue more, than the confidence with which we turn to people whose probity we have long been acquainted with.”

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“Who is to determine what the perfect is? It could only be those who are themselves perfect and who therefore know what it means. Here yawns the abyss of that circularity in which the whole of human Dasein moves. What health is, only the healthy can say. Yet healthfulness is measured according to the essential starting point of health. What truth is, only one who is truthful can discern; but the one who is truthful is determined according to the essential starting point of truth.”

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“Virtue (or the man of virtue) is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

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“Our people had been so long accustomed to the practice and convenience of having slaves, that very few among them even doubted the propriety and rectitude of it. Some liberal and conscientious men had indeed, by their conduct and writings, drawn the lawfulness of slavery into question.”

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“People throw away what they could have by insisting on perfection, which they cannot have, and looking for it where they will never find it”

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“To practice means to perform, in the face of all obstacles some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.”

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“Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Mean! Rare have they long been among the people, who could practice it!”

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