Book 15: 《衛靈公》 Wei Ling Gong (Duke Ling of Wey)
《衛靈公》 Passage 15.25
子曰:「吾之於人也,誰毀誰譽?如有所譽者,其有所試矣。斯民也,三代之所以直道而行也。」
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "In my dealings with men, whom do I overpraise, and whom do I unjustly depreciate? If there be some that I overpraise, there must be something in them on which I have, as it were, made trial.This people of the present day! — they are the same that the three dynasties were kept in their straight path by."