Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.
— often attributed to Confucius, whose Analects are studied in the second-semester freshman humanities, CC102: Antiquity and the Medieval World.
[Tertiary research suggests this is derived from 寧可玉碎，不能瓦全, a Chinese proverb meaning roughly “Better be a piece of broken jade than unbroken tile.” Why this quote is often attributed to Confucius is unclear.]
