Sze-ma Niu, full of anxiety, said, "Other men all have their brothers, I only have not."Go here to read the introductory post to this serialized version of the Analects of Confucius.
Tsze-hsia said to him, "There is the following saying which I have heard 'Death and life have their determined appointment; riches and honors depend upon Heaven.'
"Let the superior man never fail reverentially to order his own conduct, and let him be respectful to others and observant of propriety: then all within the four seas will be his brothers. What has the superior man to do with being distressed because he has no brothers?"
~ James Legge translation via The Internet Classics Archive ~
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As an only child, this appeals to me.
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