Quote
By Confucius
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
- Source
- The Chinese Classics, vol. 1: Confucian Analects, translated by James Legge, 1861 · Analects 15.23, p. 165
- Read at
- Internet Archive (scan of the first edition, Hongkong: at the author's; London: Trubner & Co., 1861)
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About this quote
From the Analects, Analects 15.23 (Book XV, chapter XXIII), in James Legge's English translation (The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, Hongkong, 1861). Legge, not Confucius, chose the English words. It is Confucius's answer to Tsze-kung, who asked for one word to serve as a rule of practice for all one's life. Confucius first says, "Is not reciprocity such a word?"