“He who goes to the bottom of his own heart knows his own nature; And knowing his own nature, he knows heaven.”

When Heaven is about to confer a great office upon you, it first exercises your mind with suffering and your sinews and bones with toil.

All people have the common desire to be elevated in honour, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.

The best things in life come in threes, like friends, dreams, and memories.

Friendship is one mind in two bodies.

If the King loves music, it is well with the land.

He who wishes to be benevolent will not be rich.

The myriad things are complete in us. There is no greater joy than to reflect on ourselves and become sincere.

The foundation of the world lies in the nation. The foundation of the nation lies in the family. The foundation of the family lies in the individual.

He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature.

The Way lies at hand yet it is sought afar off; the thing lies in the easy yet it is sought in the difficult.

Only when someone refuses to do certain things will he be capable of doing great things.

He who loves others is always loved by them, and he who respects others is always respected by them.

The regular path of virtue is to be pursued without any bend, and from no view to emolument.

If you let people follow their feelings, they will be able to do good. This is what is meant by saying that human nature is good.

The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote; the work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.

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

I try so hard to cloak my impurity so that I can hide my shadows from everyone around me. I’ll summon this will, and instead, command it to keep myself alive.

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so shall he be.

On the last day of love, my heart cracked inside my body.

To a young heart everything is fun.

Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.

The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set.

Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like ‘maybe we should be just friends’ turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination.