说苑/仲尼曰：「非其地而樹之，不生也；非其人而語之，弗聽也。

仲尼曰：「非其地而樹之，不生也；非其人而語之，弗聽也。

Eric Henry

Zhongni said, “If the soil is not right, what you plant will not grow.

得其人，如聚沙而雨之；非其人，如聚聾而鼓之。」

Eric Henry

If the person is not well chosen, he will not attend to what you say to him.

Eric Henry

Dealing with the right person is like heaping sand together and sprinkling water on it; dealing with the wrong person is like gathering a group of deaf people together and sounding a drum in their presence.