To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.
見義不為、無勇也。
What it means
If you can see what the right thing is and still don’t do it, the problem isn’t that you don’t know. It’s that you lack the courage. “Want of” here means “lack of.”
Confucius moves the failure from the head to the will: seeing what’s right is the easy part, and doing it is where courage comes in.
The context
The Analects is a collection of short sayings and exchanges, compiled from Confucius’s teachings many years after his death. This one is the second half of a two-part chapter. The first half reads: “For a man to sacrifice to a spirit which does not belong to him is flattery.” Both describe doing the convenient thing in place of the fitting one.
In the Chinese, the word Legge translates as “what is right” is 義, the same word he translates as “righteousness” when Mencius, a later Confucian, says he would “let life go, and choose righteousness.”
Why it matters
Most tests of integrity aren’t puzzles. We usually know what the right thing is: say the awkward thing, return the extra change, own the mistake. What’s missing is the nerve to do it.
Confucius’s line removes the comfortable excuse of not knowing. It calls the gap by its real name, which is the first step to closing it, and it makes courage an everyday matter rather than something reserved for emergencies.
About Confucius
Chinese philosopher, c. 551–479 BC
Confucius, born Kong Qiu, was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period, traditionally regarded as the paragon of Chinese sages. He is thought to have been born in 551 BC in Zou, in what is now Qufu in Shandong, in the state of Lu, where his father was an elderly commandant of the local garrison.
His teachings, called Confucianism, emphasised personal and governmental morality, harmonious relationships, righteousness, kindness, sincerity, and a ruler’s duty to lead by virtue. Sayings recording his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but not until many years after his death. Under Emperor Wu of Han his ideas received official sanction, and they have shaped the culture of much of East Asia since.
The source, and how we checked it
It comes from Analects, Book II, chapter 24 (translated by James Legge), Confucius lived c. 551–479 BC.
We matched the quote word for word against the Project Gutenberg text of James Legge's translation, which prints the Chinese alongside (shown here), in Book II, chapter XXIV. The Analects were compiled from his teachings many years after his death, so these are his words as his followers recorded them, and other translations word them differently. We last checked this on 5 November 2026.