“Do not worry that others do not know you; worry that you do not know others.” The sentence closes the “Learning” chapter of the Analects. Here, “worry” means to be troubled, while the classical word order places the object “self” before the verb. The sentence shifts attention from whether others recognise me to whether I can perceive, judge and understand them.
It does not turn being overlooked into moral superiority, nor claim that reputation has no value. Its point is more restrained: other people’s recognition cannot be fully controlled, while the capacity to understand them can still be corrected. When faced with judgement or neglect today, we might ask whether we are counting how others see us without seriously attending to the person and situation before us.
https://ctext.org/analects/xue-er
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