Analects 7:1. Confucius said, "I transmit but do not create. I believe in and love the ancients. I venture to compare myself to our old P'eng."

Analects 7:2. Confucius said, "To remember silently [what I have learned], to learn untiringly, and to teach others without being wearied--that is just natural with me."

Analects 7:6. Confucius said, "Set your will on the Way. Have a firm grasp on virtue. Rely on humanity. Find recreation in the arts."

Analects 7:7. Confucius said, "There has never been anyone who came with as little a present as dried meat (for tuition) that I have refused to teach him something."

Analects 7:8. Confucius said, "I do not enlighten those who are not eager to learn, nor arouse those who are not anxious to give an explanation themselves. If I have presented one corner of the square and they cannot come back to me with the other three, I should not go over the points again."

Analects 7:15. Confucius said, "With course rice to eat, with water to drink, and with a bent arm for a pillow, there is still joy. Wealth and honor obtained through unrighteousness are but floating clouds to me."

Analects 7:16. Confucius said, "Give me a few more years so that I can devote fifty years to study Change. I may be free from great mistakes."

Analects 7:17. These were the things Confucius often talked about--poetry, history, and the performance of the rules of propriety. All these were what he often talked about.

Analects 7:18. The Duke of She asked Tzu-lu about Confucius, and Tzu-lu did not answer. Confucius said, "Why didn't you say that I am a person who forgets his food when engaged in vigorous pursuit of something, is so happy as to forget his worries, and is not aware that old age is coming on?"

Analects 7:19. Confucius said, "I am not one who was born with knowledge; I love ancient [teaching] and earnestly seek it."

Analects 7:20. Confucius never discussed strange phenomena, physical exploits, disorder, or spiritual beings.

Analects 7:22. Confucius said, "Heaven produced the virtue that is in me; what can Huan T'ui do to me?"

Analects 7:24. Confucius taught four things: culture (wen), conduct, loyalty, and faithfulness.

Analects 7:26. Confucius fished with a line but not a net. While shooting he would not shoot a bird at rest.

Analects 7:27. Confucius said, "There are those who act without knowing [what is right]. But I am not one of them. To hear much and select what is good and follow it, to see much and remember it, is the second type of knowledge (next to innate knowledge)."

Analects 7:29. Confucius said, "Is humanity far away? As soon as I want it, there it is right by me."

Analects 7:34. Confucius was very ill. Tzu-lu asked that prayer be offered. Confucius said, "Is there such a thing?" Tzu-lu replied, "There is. A Eulogy says, 'Pray to the spiritual beings above and below.'" Confucius said, "My prayer has been for a long time [that is, what counts is the life that one leads]."

Analects 7:37. Confucius is affable but dignified, austere but not harsh, polite but completely at ease.