Recent Confucius Commentaries

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No Ordinary Joe
These days, Washington is loaded with bad news, cynicism, corruption, and perhaps more division than we have all seen in our lifetimes. But at Thirteenth Street and Potomac Avenue, the kindness of strangers still exists and … so does gratitude. As reported by WUSA, channel 9 in D.C. (Aug. 22), “The notes appeared mysteriously overnight. “A mysterious heart attack victim...
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October 30, 2019
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The Examined Life
Ever since I started searching the Internet I started collecting quotes.  I opened a file and every time I came across a quote that made a connection, I’d add it to the file.  It didn’t take long to discover a pattern – that true wisdom knows no period in history, religion, culture, race, age, gender or TV channel. Here are...
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August 3, 2009
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The Task of a True Statesman
Sitting in a Chinese restaurant, I remember opening a “fortune cookie” which read:  Confucius say… Wealth and renown gained without honor are nothing but drifting clouds. More than 2,500 years later, the Chinese philosopher and social thinker would probably laugh to discover that much of his wisdom has been distilled and tweaked to fit inside the modern invention of a cookie which...
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July 17, 2009
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The Golden Rule
“Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.” – Confucius, early Chinese teacher-philosopher One of the best (and most difficult to practice) definitions of the Golden Rule comes from former Hampton Honors College student Courtney Thompson. It’s a short, but powerful essay on what it means to live what Pastor Rick Warren would call, a “purpose-driven life.” When...
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June 12, 2009

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
The Man Who Helped America Believe in Itself Again
The Great Depression didn’t begin with the crash of ’29. It started earlier—quietly, steadily—beneath the surface of a country convinced the good times would never...
The Conscience of Government
If I had my way, every candidate who wins a primary election for public office—from Congress to the presidency—would be required to pass through a...
Are We Asking the Right Questions?
A recent graduation speech by a young philosophy major, Clair Doyle, at Northwestern University in Illinois, began with a deceptively simple question that stopped me...
When Power Rewrote the Message
When the pulpit merges with power, does the sword overshadow the Sermon on the Mount? Though I’m no longer practicing, I was raised Catholic. I...
It’s Superman, Strange Visitor from Another Planet…
Superman—America’s original superhero—once stood tall as a symbol of everything this country aspired to be. Superman—who embodies courage, decency, and fairness. Superman—who fights for the...
What J.D. Vance No Longer Stands For
Once celebrated as the thoughtful author of Hillbilly Elegy, Vance’s rise to the vice presidency is a lesson in political transformation—and not for the better....