The Master said, “To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.”

Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

Have no friends not equal to yourself.

When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.

The Master said, “I will not be afflicted at men’s not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men.”

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

In festive ceremonies, it is better to be sparing than extravagant. In the ceremonies of mourning, it is better that there be deep sorrow than in minute attention to observances.

Riches and honors are what men desire. If they cannot be obtained in the proper way, they should not be held. Poverty and meanness are what men dislike. If they cannot be avoided in the proper way, they should not be avoided.

He who acts with a constant view to his own advantage will be much murmured against.

The cautious seldom err.

The superior man wishes to be slow in his speech and earnest in his conduct.

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.

What is the good of being ready with the tongue? They who encounter men with smartness of speech for the most part procure themselves hatred. I know not whether he be truly virtuous, but why should he show readiness of the tongue?”

They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.

The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous are long-lived.

Respectfulness, without the rules of propriety, becomes laborious bustle; carefulness, without the rules of propriety, becomes timidity; boldness, without the rules of propriety, becomes insubordination; straightforwardness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness.

The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.

When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honor are things to be ashamed of.

A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do we know that his future will not be equal to our present? If he reach the age of forty or fifty, and has not made himself heard of, then indeed he will not be worth being regarded with respect.

Tsze-kung asked about government. The Master said, “The requisites of government are that there be sufficiency of food, sufficiency of military equipment, and the confidence of the people in their ruler.”
Tsze-kung said, “If it cannot be helped, and one of these must be dispensed with, which of the three should be foregone first?” “The military equipment,” said the Master.
Tsze-kung again asked, “If it cannot be helped, and one of the remaining two must be dispensed with, which of them should be foregone?” The Master answered, “Part with the food. From of old, death has been the lot of men; but if the people have no faith in their rulers, there is no standing for the state.”

Do not be desirous to have things done quickly; do not look at small advantages. Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly. Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.

Tsze-kung asked, saying, “What do you say of a man who is loved by all the people of his neighborhood?” The Master replied, “We may not for that accord our approval of him.” “And what do you say of him who is hated by all the people of his neighborhood?” The Master said, “We may not for that conclude that he is bad. It is better than either of these cases that the good in the neighborhood love him, and the bad hate him.”

The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy.

He who requires much from himself and little from others, will keep himself from being the object of resentment.

The superior man does not promote a man simply on account of his words, nor does he put aside good words because of the man.

Tsze-kung asked, saying, “Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life?” The Master said, “Is not RECIPROCITY such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

In language it is simply required that it convey the meaning.

Confucius said, “There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth, when the physical powers are not yet settled, he guards against lust. When he is strong and the physical powers are full of vigor, he guards against quarrelsomeness. When he is old, and the animal powers are decayed, he guards against covetousness.”

Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men.

(from The Confucian Analects, c. 500 B.C. translated by James Legge, 1893)

Reconciliation by Spinoza: Making Happiness the goal of conduct.

(Original source: Will Durant’s “The Story of Philosophy” extracted and compiled by Matias Masucci)

Sometime a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man. It happens nearly to everyone. You can feel it growing or preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite. It is a feeling in the stomach, a delight of the nerves, of the forearms. The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet. Its beginning has the pleasure of a great stretching yawn; it flashes in the brain and the whole world glows outside your eyes. A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, and the land and trees of him dark and somber. The events, even the important ones, may have trooped by faceless and pale. And then–the glory—so that a cricket song sweetens his ears, the smell of the earth rises chanting to his nose, and dappling light under a tree blesses his eyes. Then a man pours outward, a torrent of him, and yet he is not diminished. And I guess a man’s importance in the world can be measured by the quality and numbers of his glories. It is a lonely thing but it relates us to the world. It is the mother of all creativeness, and it sets each man separate from all other man.

I don’t know how it will be in the years to come. There are monstrous changes taking place in the world, forces shaping a future whose face we do not know. Some of these forces seem evil to us, perhaps not in themselves but because their tendency is to eliminate other things we hold good. It is true that two men can lift a bigger stone than one man. A group can build automobiles quicker and better than one man, and bread from a huge factory is cheaper and more uniform. When our food and clothing and housing all are born in the complication of mass production, mass method is bound to get into our thinking and to eliminate all other thinking. In our time mass or collective production has entered our economics, our politics, and even our religion, so that some nations have submitted the idea collective for the idea God. This in my time is the danger. There is great tension in the world, tension toward a breaking point, and men are unhappy and confused.

At Such a time seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and must I fight against?

Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind of a man. Nothing was ever created by tow men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.

And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repression, forced direction, and the stunning hammerblows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any ideal, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is one thing which can by inspection destroy such system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost.

One day, maybe we will find our own words to express this “Kind of Glory”. But today we have chosen to use the words of John Steinbeck (Chapter 13 of “East of Eden”), so simple and so clear.

Promoting the “Pleasure of Life-Long Learning” is the motto of The Teaching Company , an organization dedicated to the production and distribution of audio and video recordings of lectures from some of America’s most distinguished professors.

One of Society Foundation’s goals is to promote the values which have paved the way for this civilization. And so to encourage one of these values: ” …understanding life through knowledge and living.” we wish to invite our members to find out if The Teaching Company has something that may arouse their intellect.

Their website is www.teach12.com Society Foundation has no affiliation with The Teaching Company and this is only a recommendation. So like all good adventures you will have to explore at your own risk…

Society Foundation Films announces the completion and release of Rotting Dancers a film centered around the struggle of a young director in search for an artistic outlet for his frustration.

A sad look at the invasion of the artistic field by dilettantes an “free spirited” individuals that involuntarily aim to destroy the accomplishments of true craftsmen and dedicated artists.

The film will premiere on March 14th at the Chicago Audience Choice Awards. For screening details and to request tickets please visit the festival’s official website.

The film emulates the visual style and character of early Woody Allen’s films and is intended to pay homage to one of Tiefenbach’s favorite directors. Written in the words of Matias Masucci, “A Short One” is an introspective look at the effects lack of love and rejection can have on an unstable personality. Joining the cast of characters are Christopher Redman and Tarashai Lee, both delivering a convincing and well crafted performance.

The film is set to premiere in the North American Film Festival circuit in the fall of 2007.

Since its inception Society Foundation films has exclusively produced and assisted the production of several unique projects. Today, these films can be viewed here on the internet by visiting www.societyfoundationfilms.com. In an effort to guarantee that art will always be within the reach of the eyes of those who seek it, we have designed SocietyFoundationFilms.com to work as a virtual screening room where everyone is able to view the work of the filmmakers involved. Society Foundation Films is not a close group but rather an expanding community always in search of new filmmakers, actors and writers willing to get involved.

The technology available today makes it possible for imagination and commitment to be the only two necessary ingredients to “make cinema”. For too long has the art of cinema being in the hands of a selected group of wealthy individuals and only rarely in the hands of the artists. With Society Foundation Films we hope to help change the tide in favor of the creative mind.