Q0293

The Doctrine of the Mean

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The noble person is cautious about what is not seen, apprehensive about what is not heard…therefore watchful when alone.
Thinker The Doctrine of the Mean
School Confucian Classics
Source The Doctrine of the Mean
Theme Philosophy
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with The Doctrine of the Mean, within the tradition of Confucian Classics. 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 philosophy, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In The Doctrine of the Mean'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: The Doctrine of the Mean. (n.d.). The noble person is cautious about what is not seen, apprehensive about what is not heard…therefore watchful when alone. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0293

MLA: The Doctrine of the Mean. “The noble person is cautious about what is….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0293.

Chicago: The Doctrine of the Mean. “The noble person is cautious about what is….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0293.

Same thinker

More from The Doctrine of the Mean

  1. Study extensively, inquire carefully, think prudently, discriminate clearly, and practice earnestly.
  2. Sincerity is the Way of Heaven; making oneself sincere is the way of human beings.
  3. Before joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure are issued, that is called the Mean; when issued and all hit due measure, that is called Harmony.
  4. What Heaven mandates is called nature; following nature is called the Way; cultivating the Way is called teaching.

All quotations by The Doctrine of the Mean

Same theme

More on philosophy

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the philosophy theme