Confucius — "The Master said, 'What I want to avoid is fixed ideas, obstinacy, narrow-mindedn…"
The Master said, 'What I want to avoid is fixed ideas, obstinacy, narrow-mindedness, and egoism.'
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More from Confucius
"The Master said, 'A man who is not a man of benevolence—what has he to do with ceremonies? A man who is not a man of benevolence—what has he to do with music?'"
"When you see a good person, think of becoming like her/him. When you see someone not so good, reflect on your own weak points."
"The gentleman is not concerned that he is not acknowledged, but rather that he should do something worthy of being acknowledged."
"Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. Then no friends will be unlike yourself."
"The superior man, in the world, does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow."
About Confucius (551-479 BCE)
Chinese philosopher and teacher whose teachings (compiled by his students in the Analects) became the foundational ethical framework of East Asian civilization for 2,500 years. Closely associated with Mencius (his most-influential follower a century later). For an intellectual contrast, see Laozi, near-contemporary Chinese sage and Tao Te Ching author — Confucius systematized social order through ritual and family hierarchy; Laozi's Taoist effortless-action philosophy argued such systems were the disease, not the cure. The two founding poles of Chinese moral philosophy — every East Asian moral tradition since has positioned itself between them.
The standard scholarly entry points to Confucius's work: Philip J. Ivanhoe (Georgetown, Chinese philosophy) — Confucian Moral Self Cultivation (2000); Edward Slingerland (UBC, Asian Studies) — Effortless Action: Wu-wei as Conceptual Metaphor (2003); Tu Weiming (Harvard, Confucian scholar) — Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation (1985). These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Confucius.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The speaker names four mental traps he tries to keep out of his own thinking: locking onto a single opinion before the facts are in, refusing to budge once challenged, shrinking his view to only what is familiar, and making himself the measure of everything. He is describing the habits that prevent clear judgment and honest learning, and committing to stay free of them.
Relevance to Confucius
Confucius spent his career as a wandering teacher advising rulers across competing states, which demanded constant reassessment of people and policies. He prized lifelong learning, ritual humility, and listening to others, and criticized officials who clung to privilege or dogma. This self-description matches his recorded method of questioning students, revising his own views, and refusing to claim the title of sage, embodying the open-minded ren he taught.
The era
Confucius lived during the late Spring and Autumn period (roughly 551-479 BCE), when the Zhou dynasty's authority had fractured and rival states fought for dominance. Competing schools, from Legalists to early Daoists, pushed rigid doctrines, and court officials often rose by flattery or hereditary rank. Against this backdrop of ideological hardening and self-interested rule, a public commitment to flexibility, humility, and setting aside the ego was both a moral stance and a pointed political critique.
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