Sean Barrs 's Reviews > The Analects

“Is it not indeed a pleasure to acquire knowledge and constantly to exercise oneself therein?”

It really is. It’s a noble pursuit, forever trying to learn and improve and become the best you possible. And in a way, that’s the main drive behind these teachings: self-improvement.

I’ve met so many people in my life that never reached their potential or realised it. So many people don’t dare to try. Growing up, I had some real intelligent friends who could have gone on to do wonderful things, but they were too lazy to exercise themselves (physically and mentally) to achieve what they ought to have done. They quit school or they didn’t put any effort into work. They ended up in a dead-end job when they could have done so much more with themselves had they the will and the drive to succeed and become the best version of themselves. People give up all too easy and settle for less. It’s sad to see.

And this book pushes against such a defeatist mindset, it argues through strength of virtue that we can become more contended with life. We can succeed and we can be happy. Continued effort is all aspects of life is the key, continued effort in maintaining family relationships and mastering abilities are essential for developing strong moral character. Education, and an exploration of literature, are the quintessential ingredients to be able to utilise these effectively. All in all, knowledge is everything.

“When everyone hates a person, you should investigate thoroughly, and when everyone loves a person, you should also investigate thoroughly.”

This gives one the integrity to observe the world in their own personal way and to make their own decisions about the people in it. Being guided by others is easy, we need the strength of character to make judgements based upon what we see and what we think. And that’s rather important because only then can we develop wisdom and come to understand the world. The words of Confucius are timeless in this regard, they are true, and they are very powerful in the right hands.

For me, this was quite a refreshing read. Lately, I feel like the world is full of negativity and defeat. These ideas give me hope that one day we may be better. Confucius held a strong ideal for man, and although he didn’t think his ideals were necessarily rewarding, I think there’s much to be learnt from them.