On Thursday, August 7, 2003, at 07:14 PM, Hal E. Fulton wrote:
[snip]
<offtopic>
> When I was working on _The Ruby Way_ and gathering quotations
> to intersperse in the material -- and I admit some of these
> are kind of hokey -- I was thumbing through the writings of
> Confucius. No, seriously. And I found a quote that I almost
> used, that reminded me of duck typing: "If an urn does not
> have the properties of an urn, can it truly be said to be
> an urn?" :) That may be wrong, it's from memory. Intriguing,
> though, isn't it? Predates Bishop Berkely, John Locke,
> Immanuel Kant by 2000 years. Perhaps even predates Plato.
> My history isn't that good.
> </offtopic>
> [snip]

Confucius died in 479 B.C. and Plato was born in 428 B.C., so yes he 
predates Plato.

Other quotes from The Analects:

1.  Lord Chi Wen thought three times before taking any action. When the 
Master heard this, he said: "Twice is plenty enough."

[Agile Programming]

2.  The Master said: "Language is insight itself."

[Ruby]

3.  The Master said: "If things far away don't concern you, you'll soon 
mourn things close at hand."

[Lesson learned, September 11, 2001]

Regards,

Mark