“Sacrifice is a state of mind in which our thoughts turn with longing [toward Heaven, the Ancestors], It is the supreme expression of loyalty, love, and respect.”

I once tried thinking for an entire day, but I found it less valuable than one moment of study.

The noble person uses things; the lesser man is used by things.

Whether the gentleman is capable or not, he is loved all the same; conversely the petty man is loathed all the same.

Thus, anybody who follows this nature and gives way its states will be led into quarrels and conflicts, and go against the conventions and rules of society, and will end up a criminal.

When you concentrate on agriculture and industry and are frugal in expenditures, Heaven cannot impoverish your state.

You look upon the seasons with expectation and await them: wy not seize the seasonal opportunities and exploit them?

Sacrifices are concerned with the feelings of devotion and longing.

Pride and excess bring disaster for man.

Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.

Mencius said that human nature is good. I disagree with that.

Music is a fantastic peacekeeper of the world, it is integral to harmony, and it is a required fundamental of human emotion.

Misery is evil; quarreling, a misfortune. There is only one possibility of avoiding both: a clear division of society. [Otherwise] the strong tyrannize the weak, the intelligent frighten the stupid, the inferior resist the superior, and the young mock the old.

Now it is human nature to want to eat to ones fill when hungry, to want to warm up when cold, to want to rest when tired. These all are a part of people’s emotional nature.

Thus, that one can find no place to walk through the breadth of the earth is not because the earth is not tranquil but because the danger to every step of the traveler lies generally with words.

Men of all social stations live together: they are equal in their desires, yet vary in their methods; they are equal in their passions, yet different in their intelligence; that is their nature-given vitality.

If there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement.

We live always under the weight of the old and odious customs… of our barbarous ancestors.

Like our ancestors, we act in ways that will bemuse future societies.

Birth is nothing without virtue, and we have no claim to share in the glory of our ancestors unless we endeavor to resemble them.

Offspring, the due performance on religious rites, faithful service, highest conjugal happiness and heavenly bliss for the ancestors and oneself, depend on one’s wife alone.

The ancients, sir, are the ancients, and we are the people of today.

I would like to be like my father and all the rest of my ancestors who never married.

Posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors.

Distinguished ancestors shed a powerful light on their descendants, and forbid the concealment either of their merits or of their demerits.