Confucius said...

Ancient proverbs carry with them a unique moral and intellectual mentality, and I became influenced by that mentality as a kid, when Dad would read from the biblical book of Proverbs during breakfast.

I think the power of proverbs is this: they're easy to remember, and poignant enough to stick in your head, and usually applicable in a real-world sense at some point in your week.

Thomas Cleary's fantastic little book, The Essential Confucius, provides a great collection of another insightful source of proverbs: The Analects of Confucius. It seems like these proverbs ought to have more of a place in our mass culture, because they make so much sense. A new packaging of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, his ancient Roman sayings, was published a few years ago. Despite my qualms with some of Stoic philosophy, perhaps the fact that a publisher chose to take on yet another edition of the classic sayings is a sign of hope.

Here are some of Cleary's selections, with my comments in paranthesis:

Confucius said, "Study without thinking, and you are blind; think without studying, and you are in danger."

(Think without studying -- that explains celebrity actors commenting on current events.)

Confucious said, "Enliven the ancient and also know what is new; then you can be a teacher."

(It's the old stories, poems and dramas that still provide structure and subterranean sources for today's novels and movies.)

Confucius said, "There are those who act without knowing; I will have none of this. To hear a lot, choose the good, and follow it, to see a lot and learn to recognize it: this is next to knowledge."

(Enough said.)