Full Idea
I have yet to meet a man as fond of excellence as he is of outward appearances.
Gist of Idea
All men prefer outward appearance to true excellence
Source
Kongzi (Confucius) (The Analects (Lunyu) [c.511 BCE], IX.18)
Book Reference
Confucius: 'The Sayings of Confucius', ed/tr. Ware,James R. [Mentor 1955], p.63
A Reaction
Interestingly, this cynical view of the love of virtue is put by Plato into the mouths of Glaucon and Adeimantus (in Bk II of 'Republic', e.g. Idea 12), and not into the mouth of Socrates, who goes on to defend the possibility of true virtue.
Related Idea
Idea 12 If we were invisible, would the just man become like the unjust? [Plato]