Q0497

Confucius

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The Master said: The gentleman seeks harmony but not sameness; the petty man seeks sameness but not harmony.
Thinker Confucius
School Confucianism
Source Analects, Zi Lu
Theme Order
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Analects, Zi Lu, 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 order, 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 gentleman seeks harmony but not sameness; the petty man seeks sameness but not harmony. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0497

MLA: Confucius. “The Master said: The gentleman seeks harmony but….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0497.

Chicago: Confucius. “The Master said: The gentleman seeks harmony but….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0497.

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 order

  1. Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'.
  2. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  3. [In the state of nature, the life of man is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
  4. The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.
  5. the best of all possible worlds

Browse the order theme