‘A noble person honours the worthy and includes the many, commends goodness and shows compassion for those who cannot.’ The sentence appears in the Zizhang chapter of the Analects. A disciple of Zixia asks Zizhang about friendship and reports Zixia's advice: associate with those who are acceptable and reject the others. Zizhang replies that what he has heard is different.
To ‘honour the worthy’ is to respect excellence; to ‘include the many’ is to make room for ordinary people. The sentence does not abolish moral judgement. It resists turning every difference in ability or conduct directly into exclusion. Its restrained contemporary value lies in keeping discernment and generosity together, rather than using the word tolerance as self-praise.
https://ctext.org/analects/zi-zhang/zhs
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