SPACEDK · DAILY CLASSICS · 07:00 CST
The Daily Classics Library
At 7:00 every morning in Beijing, 500 complete sayings, verses, reflections, or stories are selected from edition- and rights-verified books, then read again in historical and contemporary context.
Verification rule: Unsourced internet quotations are excluded. Every item records its work, authorship or traditional attribution, translator, locator, source revision, and rights status. “Complete” means a self-contained saying, verse, reflection, or story—not copying an entire protected modern book.
Dhammapada
Dhammapada · IV:48
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 261, “Dhammapada · Dhammapada · IV:48 · IV:48,” can mean this: Life and time are precious. Care for yourself and the people around you.
Try this: Observe first and guess second. Change your mind when clues change.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Dhammapada is an anthology of Pali Buddhist verses shaped by long transmission and compilation, so a verifiable occasion cannot be assigned to each verse. This source uses Max Müller’s 1881 translation and keeps its nineteenth-century philological vocabulary visible.
- Period
- Ancient Indian Buddhist tradition; 1881 English translation
- Region
- South Asia / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Ancient compilation of uncertain date; translation published 1881
- Edition
- Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. X
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Death subdues a man who is gathering flowers, and whose mind is distracted, before he is satiated in his pleasures.
Aesop’s Fables
The Quack Frog
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 262, “Aesop’s Fables · The Quack F…… Quack Frog · the-quack-frog,” can mean this: After learning something, practise it and ask for help when needed.
Try this: Give gentle care to a person, animal, or plant today.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Aesopic corpus is a long, changing fable tradition, not a set of individually verifiable utterances by one sixth-century BCE author. Each complete item here is fixed to V. S. Vernon Jones’s 1912 English edition.
- Period
- Ancient Greek tradition; 1912 English edition
- Region
- Ancient Mediterranean / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Traditional material associated with the 6th century BCE; translation published 1912
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of the 1912 V. S. Vernon Jones translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Once upon a time a Frog came forth from his home in the marshes and proclaimed to all the world that he was a learned physician, skilled in drugs and able to cure all diseases. Among the crowd was a Fox, who called out, “You a doctor! Why, how can you set up to heal others when you cannot even cure your own lame legs and blotched and wrinkled skin?” Physician, heal thyself.
Meditations
Meditations · Book 7, passage 57
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 263, “Meditations · Meditations · …… 7, passage 57 · book-7-p-57,” can mean this: Life and time are precious. Care for yourself and the people around you.
Try this: Observe first and guess second. Change your mind when clues change.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Marcus Aurelius governed in the second century CE amid frontier wars, imperial administration, and the Antonine plague. The Meditations are private Greek exercises; the exact date and place of individual notes are often uncertain. This edition uses George Long’s 1862 translation.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 2nd century CE; 1862 English translation
- Region
- Roman Empire / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Original notes c. 170s CE; translation first published 1862
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of George Long’s translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
How do we know if Telauges was not superior in character to Socrates? For it is not enough that Socrates died a more noble death, and disputed more skilfully with the sophists, and passed the night in the cold with more endurance, and that when he was bid to arrest Leon of Salamis, he considered it more noble to refuse, and that he walked in a swaggering way in the streets—though as to this fact one may have great doubts if it was true. But we ought to inquire, what kind of a soul it was that Socrates possessed, and if he was able to be content with being just towards men and pious towards the gods, neither idly vexed on account of men’s villainy, nor yet making himself a slave to any man’s ignorance, nor receiving as strange anything that fell to his share out of the universal, nor enduring it as intolerable, nor allowing his understanding to sympathize with the affects of the miserable flesh.
論語
公冶長第五 · 五之十三
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 264, “論語 · 公冶長第五 · 五之十三 · 五之十三,” can mean this: Words can help or hurt. Think before you speak.
Try this: Observe first and guess second. Change your mind when clues change.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Confucius lived amid political fragmentation and changing ritual order in the late Spring and Autumn period. The Analects was compiled over time by disciples and later circles, not recorded as a verbatim transcript. This item is fixed to a specific Wikisource revision.
- Period
- 春秋末至战国编集 / late Spring and Autumn to Warring States compilation
- Region
- 中国 / China
- Work date
- 约公元前5—3世纪逐步编集
- Edition
- 中文维基文库《論語》公冶長第五
Check the complete text with an adult
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子貢曰：「夫子之文章，可得而聞也；夫子之言性與天道，不可得而聞也。」
Meditations
Meditations · Book 9, passage 14
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 265, “Meditations · Meditations · …… 9, passage 14 · book-9-p-14,” can mean this: Everyone meets hard choices. We can pause before acting.
Try this: Tell a trusted adult one thing you learned today.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Marcus Aurelius governed in the second century CE amid frontier wars, imperial administration, and the Antonine plague. The Meditations are private Greek exercises; the exact date and place of individual notes are often uncertain. This edition uses George Long’s 1862 translation.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 2nd century CE; 1862 English translation
- Region
- Roman Empire / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Original notes c. 170s CE; translation first published 1862
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of George Long’s translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
All things are the same, familiar in experience, and ephemeral in time, and worthless in the matter. Everything now is just as it was in the time of those whom we have buried.
Pensées
Pensées · Section XIV · 918
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 266, “Pensées · Pensées · Section ……· Section XIV · fragment 918,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: If something is hard today, say, “Please help me.”
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section XIV
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Ôtez la probabilité, on ne peut plus plaire au monde ; mettez la probabilité, on ne peut plus lui déplaire.
Meditations
Meditations · Book 10, passage 30
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 267, “Meditations · Meditations · ……0, passage 30 · book-10-p-30,” can mean this: After learning something, practise it and ask for help when needed.
Try this: Before choosing, count to three and ask, “Is there another way?”
Important reminder: Do not judge a person from one sentence. Check what happened and think with a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Marcus Aurelius governed in the second century CE amid frontier wars, imperial administration, and the Antonine plague. The Meditations are private Greek exercises; the exact date and place of individual notes are often uncertain. This edition uses George Long’s 1862 translation.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 2nd century CE; 1862 English translation
- Region
- Roman Empire / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Original notes c. 170s CE; translation first published 1862
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of George Long’s translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Imagine every man who is grieved at anything or discontented to be like a pig which is sacrificed and kicks and screams.
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Seneca · LXXXVI. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §4
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 268, “Epistulae morales ad Luciliu……ENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §4,” can mean this: Everyone meets hard choices. We can pause before acting.
Try this: After a task, check whether it truly helped someone.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Seneca’s letters to Lucilius are usually dated to about 62–65 CE, late in Nero’s reign. They combine counsel with deliberate literary composition. Claims about freedom, wealth, and death must be read alongside Roman political danger, hierarchy, and slavery. This item preserves the original Latin at a fixed Wikisource revision.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 1st century CE
- Region
- Roman Empire
- Work date
- Commonly dated to Seneca’s final years, c. 62–65 CE
- Edition
- Latin Wikisource, Liber XI – XIII
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
[4] Vidi villam extructam lapide quadrato, murum circumdatum silvae, turres quoque in propugnaculum villae utrimque subrectas, cisternam aedificiis ac viridibus subditam quae sufficere in usum vel exercitus posset, balneolum angustum, tenebricosum ex consuetudine antiqua: non videbatur maioribus nostris caldum nisi obscurum.
論語
子路第十三 · 十三之九
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 269, “論語 · 子路第十三 · 十三之九 · 十三之九,” can mean this: New learning becomes stronger when we practise it again.
Try this: Observe first and guess second. Change your mind when clues change.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Confucius lived amid political fragmentation and changing ritual order in the late Spring and Autumn period. The Analects was compiled over time by disciples and later circles, not recorded as a verbatim transcript. This item is fixed to a specific Wikisource revision.
- Period
- 春秋末至战国编集 / late Spring and Autumn to Warring States compilation
- Region
- 中国 / China
- Work date
- 约公元前5—3世纪逐步编集
- Edition
- 中文维基文库《論語》子路第十三
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
子適衞，冉有僕。子曰：「庶矣哉！」冉有曰：「既庶矣，又何加焉？」曰：「富之。」曰：「既富矣，又何加焉？」曰：「教之。」
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Seneca · XXI. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §7
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 270, “Epistulae morales ad Luciliu……ENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §7,” can mean this: It is fine to want something, but do not take it by force or hurt others.
Try this: If something is hard today, say, “Please help me.”
Important reminder: This is one reading, not a rule that is always right. Tell a trusted adult about danger, bullying, or pain.
For adults: historical and edition context
Seneca’s letters to Lucilius are usually dated to about 62–65 CE, late in Nero’s reign. They combine counsel with deliberate literary composition. Claims about freedom, wealth, and death must be read alongside Roman political danger, hierarchy, and slavery. This item preserves the original Latin at a fixed Wikisource revision.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 1st century CE
- Region
- Roman Empire
- Work date
- Commonly dated to Seneca’s final years, c. 62–65 CE
- Edition
- Latin Wikisource, Liber II
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
[7] Ne gratis Idomeneus in epistulam meam venerit, ipse eam de suo redimet. Ad hunc Epicurus illam nobilem sententiam scripsit qua hortatur ut Pythoclea locupletem non publica nec ancipiti via faciat. 'Si vis' inquit 'Pythoclea divitem facere, non pecuniae adiciendum sed cupiditati detrahendum est.'
Pensées
Pensées · Section I · 47
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 271, “Pensées · Pensées · Section ……47 · Section I · fragment 47,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: Give gentle care to a person, animal, or plant today.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section I
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Il y en a qui parlent bien et qui n’écrivent pas bien ; c’est que le lieu, l’assistance les échauffe, et tire de leur esprit plus qu’ils n’y trouvent sans cette chaleur.
Pensées
Pensées · Section XIV · 877
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 272, “Pensées · Pensées · Section ……· Section XIV · fragment 877,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: Before choosing, count to three and ask, “Is there another way?”
Important reminder: This is one reading, not a rule that is always right. Tell a trusted adult about danger, bullying, or pain.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section XIV
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Les rois disposent de leur empire ; mais les Papes ne peuvent disposer du leur.
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Seneca · CXVII. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §18
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 273, “Epistulae morales ad Luciliu……NECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §18,” can mean this: Words can help or hurt. Think before you speak.
Try this: After a task, check whether it truly helped someone.
Important reminder: This is one reading, not a rule that is always right. Tell a trusted adult about danger, bullying, or pain.
For adults: historical and edition context
Seneca’s letters to Lucilius are usually dated to about 62–65 CE, late in Nero’s reign. They combine counsel with deliberate literary composition. Claims about freedom, wealth, and death must be read alongside Roman political danger, hierarchy, and slavery. This item preserves the original Latin at a fixed Wikisource revision.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 1st century CE
- Region
- Roman Empire
- Work date
- Commonly dated to Seneca’s final years, c. 62–65 CE
- Edition
- Latin Wikisource, Liber XIX
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
[18] Olim ipse me damno qui illos imitor dum accuso et verba apertae rei inpendo. Cui enim dubium potest esse quin, si aestus malum est, et aestuare malum sit? si algor malum est, malum sit algere? si vita bonum est, et vivere bonum sit? Omnia ista circa sapientiam, non in ipsa sunt; at nobis in ipsa commorandum est.
Dhammapada
Dhammapada · XXV:421
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 274, “Dhammapada · Dhammapada · XXV:421 · XXV:421,” can mean this: Everyone meets hard choices. We can pause before acting.
Try this: Before choosing, count to three and ask, “Is there another way?”
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Dhammapada is an anthology of Pali Buddhist verses shaped by long transmission and compilation, so a verifiable occasion cannot be assigned to each verse. This source uses Max Müller’s 1881 translation and keeps its nineteenth-century philological vocabulary visible.
- Period
- Ancient Indian Buddhist tradition; 1881 English translation
- Region
- South Asia / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Ancient compilation of uncertain date; translation published 1881
- Edition
- Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. X
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Him I call indeed a Brahmana who calls nothing his own, whether it be before, behind, or between, who is poor, and free from the love of the world.
Pensées
Pensées · Section XIV · 899
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 275, “Pensées · Pensées · Section ……· Section XIV · fragment 899,” can mean this: Words can help or hurt. Think before you speak.
Try this: Today, listen until another person finishes, then answer.
Important reminder: This is one reading, not a rule that is always right. Tell a trusted adult about danger, bullying, or pain.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section XIV
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Contre ceux qui abusent des passages de l’Écriture, et qui se prévalent de ce qu’ils en trouvent quelqu’un qui semble favoriser leur erreur. — Le chapitre de Vêpres, le dimanche de la Passion, l’oraison pour le roi. Explication de ces paroles : Qui n’est pas pour moi est contre moi — et de ces autres : Qui n’est point contre vous est pour vous. Une personne qui dit : Je ne suis ni pour ni contre — ; on doit lui répondre…
Pensées
Pensées · Section XIII · 808
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 276, “Pensées · Pensées · Section …… Section XIII · fragment 808,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: Give gentle care to a person, animal, or plant today.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section XIII
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Jésus-Christ a vérifié qu’il était le Messie, jamais en vérifiant sa doctrine sur l’Écriture et les prophéties, et toujours par ses miracles. Il prouve qu’il remet les péchés par un miracle. « Ne vous éjouissez point de vos miracles, dit Jésus-Christ, mais de ce que vos noms sont écrits aux cieux. » S’ils ne croient point Moïse, ils ne croiront point un ressuscité. Nicodème reconnaît, par ses miracles, que sa doctrine est de Dieu : Scimus quia venisti a Deo magister ; nemo enim potest facere quæ tu facis nisi Deus fuerit cum eo. Il ne juge pas des miracles par la doctrine, mais de la doctrine par les miracles. Les Juifs avaient une doctrine de Dieu comme nous en avons une de Jésus-Christ, et confirmée par miracles ; et défense de croire à tous faiseurs de miracles, et, de plus, ordre de recourir aux grands prêtres, et de s’en tenir à eux. Et ainsi toutes les raisons que nous avons pour refuser de croire les faiseurs de miracles, ils les avaient à l’égard de leurs prophètes. Et cependant ils étaient très coupables de refuser les prophètes, à cause de leurs miracles, et Jésus-Christ ; et n’eussent point été coupables s’ils n’eussent point vu les miracles : Nisi fecissem…, peccatum non haberent. Donc toute la créance est sur les miracles. La prophétie n’est point appelée miracle ; comme, saint Jehan parle du premier miracle en Cana, et puis de ce que Jésus-Christ dit à la Samaritaine qui découvre toute sa vie cachée, et puis guérit le fils d’un sergent, et saint Jehan appelle cela « le deuxième signe ».
Meditations
Meditations · Book 4, passage 48
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 277, “Meditations · Meditations · …… 4, passage 48 · book-4-p-48,” can mean this: After learning something, practise it and ask for help when needed.
Try this: Before choosing, count to three and ask, “Is there another way?”
Important reminder: This is one reading, not a rule that is always right. Tell a trusted adult about danger, bullying, or pain.
For adults: historical and edition context
Marcus Aurelius governed in the second century CE amid frontier wars, imperial administration, and the Antonine plague. The Meditations are private Greek exercises; the exact date and place of individual notes are often uncertain. This edition uses George Long’s 1862 translation.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 2nd century CE; 1862 English translation
- Region
- Roman Empire / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Original notes c. 170s CE; translation first published 1862
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of George Long’s translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Always remember the saying of Heraclitus, that the death of earth is to become water, and the death of water is to become air, and the death of air is to become fire, and reversely. And think too of him who forgets whither the way leads, and that men quarrel with that with which they are most constantly in communion, the reason which governs the universe; and the things which daily meet with seem to them strange: and consider that we ought not to act and speak as if we were asleep, for even in sleep we seem to act and speak; and that we ought not, like children who learn from their parents, simply to act and speak as we have been taught.
Dhammapada
Dhammapada · XVII:221
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 278, “Dhammapada · Dhammapada · XV……mapada · XVII:221 · XVII:221,” can mean this: When angry, pause first. Let your body settle, then explain why.
Try this: After a task, check whether it truly helped someone.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Dhammapada is an anthology of Pali Buddhist verses shaped by long transmission and compilation, so a verifiable occasion cannot be assigned to each verse. This source uses Max Müller’s 1881 translation and keeps its nineteenth-century philological vocabulary visible.
- Period
- Ancient Indian Buddhist tradition; 1881 English translation
- Region
- South Asia / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Ancient compilation of uncertain date; translation published 1881
- Edition
- Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. X
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride, let him overcome all bondage! No sufferings befall the man who is not attached to name and form, and who calls nothing his own.
論語
顏淵第十二 · 十二之二十
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 279, “論語 · 顏淵第十二 · 十二之二十 · 十二之二十,” can mean this: Words can help or hurt. Think before you speak.
Try this: If you disagree, use calm words to explain why.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Confucius lived amid political fragmentation and changing ritual order in the late Spring and Autumn period. The Analects was compiled over time by disciples and later circles, not recorded as a verbatim transcript. This item is fixed to a specific Wikisource revision.
- Period
- 春秋末至战国编集 / late Spring and Autumn to Warring States compilation
- Region
- 中国 / China
- Work date
- 约公元前5—3世纪逐步编集
- Edition
- 中文维基文库《論語》顏淵第十二
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
子張問：「士何如斯可謂之『達』矣？」子曰：「何哉，爾所謂『達』者？」子張對曰：「在邦必聞，在家必聞。」子曰：「是『聞』也，非『達』也。夫『達』也者，質直而好義，察言而觀色，慮以下人，在邦必達，在家必達。夫『聞』也者：色取仁而行違，居之不疑。在邦必聞，在家必聞。」
Aesop’s Fables
The Monkey and the Camel
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 280, “Aesop’s Fables · The Monkey ……l · the-monkey-and-the-camel,” can mean this: It is fine to want something, but do not take it by force or hurt others.
Try this: Give gentle care to a person, animal, or plant today.
Important reminder: Do not judge a person from one sentence. Check what happened and think with a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Aesopic corpus is a long, changing fable tradition, not a set of individually verifiable utterances by one sixth-century BCE author. Each complete item here is fixed to V. S. Vernon Jones’s 1912 English edition.
- Period
- Ancient Greek tradition; 1912 English edition
- Region
- Ancient Mediterranean / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Traditional material associated with the 6th century BCE; translation published 1912
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of the 1912 V. S. Vernon Jones translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
At a gathering of all the beasts the Monkey gave an exhibition of dancing and entertained the company vastly. There was great applause at the finish, which excited the envy of the Camel and made him desire to win the favour of the assembly by the same means. So he got up from his place and began dancing, but he cut such a ridiculous figure as he plunged about, and made such a grotesque exhibition of his ungainly person, that the beasts all fell upon him with ridicule and drove him away.