Study the past if you would define the future.
Confucius (551–479 BC) was a Chinese teacher and civil servant whose teachings on duty, family and government shaped Chinese thought for more than two thousand years. He wrote no book himself; the Analects are a collection of his sayings compiled by his students after his death.
About this theme: Time
Time is the one theme here where every author writes from the same position — none of them had more of it than they had. Seneca devoted an essay to it, and his central claim is uncomfortable: we are not given a short life, we spend it in a way that makes it seem short.
More by Confucius
- It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
- Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
- The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
- Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
- Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
More on Time
- Lost time is never found again.— Benjamin Franklin
- The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.— Chinese Proverb
- It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.— Seneca
- The life given us by nature is short, but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.— Cicero
- The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.— Nikola Tesla