The Noble One Is Clear on What Is Right

answered by Analects, Li Ren

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🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Chariots of Fire (1981)

dir. Hugh Hudson · UK

People run toward the same finish line but for different reasons. Is winning the only worth of the race, or does what one runs for divide the meaning of the running?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

What do I run for — to win, or for something I would keep even by winning?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

君子喩於義小人喩於利

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

The noble one is clear on what is right; the small person, on what is profitable.

💡 TL;DR

Confucius said the noble one is clear on what is right, the small person on what is profitable.

📝The Classic Answers

Confucius said the noble one is clear on what is right, the small person on what is profitable. Even doing the same thing, what one aims at divides people. One who runs only to win and one who runs for something he believes right have run different roads, though the finish line is the same. He who knows what a victory is for, more than the victory itself, does not lose himself even in winning. Before I run toward something, I choose to ask first whether my reason is profit or what is right.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

When you strive for something today, ask yourself in one line whether the motive is profit or what is right.

📖 Classic Source: Analects, Li Ren. Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.