The Analects of Confucius. Short Sayings From China's Most Influential Teacher on How to Live, Lead, and Treat Other People

The Analects isn't a single argument - it's a collection of short conversations and sayings attributed to Confucius and his students, covering how to govern justly, how to treat family, how to become a better person one habit at a time, and why character matters more than cleverness. There's no system to memorize, just a teacher's answers to real questions from real students, recorded by the people who knew him.
Few books have shaped more centuries of East Asian thought, education, and government than this one. This edition uses the classic James Legge translation, still one of the clearest English versions of a text that has outlasted every dynasty that tried to claim it.