The Master said,
‘Learning without thought is labor lost;
thought without learning is perilous.’

Analects of Confucius - Book 2, Chapter 15
(Translated by James Legge)
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This reminds me of that many times recycled quote about knowledge not being power, but applied knowledge being power. Numerous people are attributed with some recent variation--the likes of Eric Thomas, Julian Hall, and Dale Carnegie to name a few--but this line of thinking was around thousands of years before any of them were born.

Confucius lived from 551-479 BCE, but even his teachings may have been a revival of earlier religious traditions, dating back closer to 2,000 BCE. The point I’m trying to make is that much of the wisdom we see floating around the modern ether was thought up a time before internet memes, passed down verbally before words were ever written down. And many gems of wisdom were borrowed by other cultures or religions before them. I’ll highlight more of them to come.

The more I study ancient religions and philosophies, the more I see they stem from similar belief systems about living a righteous life. There are likely more commonalities than differences, which is what I’m trying to highlight with this collection here.

Something I like about Confucianism is there are no Confucian gods (and it’s debated whether or not this is considered a religion because of it), and even Confucius himself is worshiped as a spirit rather than a deity. But the focus on inner virtue, morality, and respect of community has influenced China for more than 2,500 years. There is much to be learned from a line of thinking that has stood that test of time.