“So I like life and I like righteousness; if I cannot keep the two together, I will let life go and choose righteousness.”

Treat your elders as elders, and extend it to the elders of others; treat your young ones as young ones, and extend it to the young ones of others; then you can turn the whole world in the palm of your hand.

Where it is permissible both to die and not to die, it is an abuse of valour to die.

Sincerity is the way to heaven; to think how to be sincere is the way of man.

The great person never loses a childlike spirit.

He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.

By exhaustively examining one’s own mind,one may understand his nature. One who understands his own nature understands Heaven.

The tendency of mans nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downward.

The feeling of right or wrong is the beginning of wisdom.

Virtue alone is not sufficient for the exercise of government; laws alone cannot carry themselves into practice.

Listen to a man’s words and look at the pupil of his eye. How can a man conceal his character?

In abundance prepare for scarcity.

Benevolence is one of the distinguishing characters of man.

Is it only the mouth and belly which are injured by hunger and thirst? Men’s minds are also injured by them.

Never lose your child’s heart.

The ways are two: love and want of love. That is all.

All things are already complete in us. There is no greater delight than to be conscious of right within us. If one strives to treat others as he would be treated by them, he shall not fail to come near the perfect life.