Q0140

Confucius

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The Master said: If one hears the Way in the morning, one may die content that evening.
Thinker Confucius
School Confucianism
Source Analects, Li Ren
Theme Way
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Analects, Li Ren, within the tradition of Confucianism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of way, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Confucius's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Confucius. (n.d.). The Master said: If one hears the Way in the morning, one may die content that evening. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0140

MLA: Confucius. “The Master said: If one hears the Way….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0140.

Chicago: Confucius. “The Master said: If one hears the Way….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0140.

Same thinker

More from Confucius

  1. The Master said: Is it not a pleasure to learn and to practice what one has learned in due time? Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar? Is it not the mark of a gentleman to remain unresentful when others fail to appreciate one?
  2. The Master said: What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
  3. The Master said: You, shall I teach you what knowing is? To know what you know, and to know what you do not know — that is true knowing.
  4. The Master said: When three people walk together, one of them is sure to be my teacher. I select what is good in them and follow it; what is not good, I correct in myself.
  5. The Master said: When you see the worthy, think of equaling them; when you see the unworthy, examine yourself within.

All quotations by Confucius

Same theme

More on way

  1. Those who have the Way receive much help; those who lose the Way receive little help.
  2. The highest good is like water. Water benefits the myriad things and does not contend; it dwells in places the multitude dislike — therefore it is close to the Way.
  3. Humans model themselves on earth; earth on heaven; heaven on the Way; and the Way on what is naturally so.
  4. Ordinary mind is the Way.
  5. What Heaven mandates is called nature; following nature is called the Way; cultivating the Way is called teaching.

Browse the way theme