Gentlemen Are Hard to Please

[PureInsight.org] Confucius
said, "Gentlemen are easy to serve, but hard to please.  In order
to please a gentleman, you must act according to the principles, or he
will be unhappy. A gentleman will think highly of your talents and give
you an opportunity to use them. Villains are difficult to serve and
easy to please. You do not need to behave according to the principles
as long as you do exactly what you are told.



"A gentleman will cultivate his heart in accordance with moral
standards. He is rational and will restrain his feelings and desires
and therefore his actions will match his words. When you serve a
gentleman, you will find out that he will respect your knowledge and
talents and not emphasize your personal relationship with him. If you
want to please a gentleman, you have to know his ambition and the
principles he follows and therefore it is not easy.



"On the contrary, it is easy to please a villain because he stresses
personal relationships, likes and dislikes, instead of upright
principles or high ambition. However, a villain rarely thinks of others
first and his character is not stable, so it is harder to serve him."



Translated from:

http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/9/12/48128.html