Q0318

Confucius

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The Master said: The craftsman who wishes to do his work well must first sharpen his tools.
Thinker Confucius
School Confucianism
Source Analects, Wei Ling Gong
Theme Philosophy
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Analects, Wei Ling Gong, 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 philosophy, 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: The craftsman who wishes to do his work well must first sharpen his tools. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0318

MLA: Confucius. “The Master said: The craftsman who wishes to….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0318.

Chicago: Confucius. “The Master said: The craftsman who wishes to….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0318.

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 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