Confucian Analects · Analects 17.15
1. The Master said, 'There are those mean creatures! How impossible it is along with them to serve one's prince! 2. 'While they have not got their aims, their anxiety is how to get them. When they have got them, their anxiety is lest they should lose them. 3. 'When they are anxious lest such things should be lost, there is nothing to which they will not proceed.'
Chinese · source text【十五章】【一節】子曰、鄙夫、可與事君也與哉。【二節】其未得之也、患得之、既得之、患失之。【三節】苟患失之、無所不至矣。
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Confucius · English translation by James Legge · bilingual transcription
James Legge, The Chinese Classics, Volume 1: Confucian Analects · Project Gutenberg #4094
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