“The gap between enthusiasm and indifference is filled with failures. The great man is he that does not lose his child’s heart.”

The way of truth is like a great road. It is not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will not seek it.

The disease of men is that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others.

To lay hold of the mean without taking into account the occasion is like grasping one thing only.

A man must not be without shame, for the shame of being without shame is shamelessness indeed.

Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue, and does not admit of assumptions of superiority.

The Tao is near and people seek it far away.

Mankind fears an evil man but heaven does not.

The feeling of compassion is the beginning of humanity.

Secure property in hand leads to peace in mind.

The sole concern of learning is to seek one’s original heart.

Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.

The way of truth is like a great highway. It is not hard to find.

Never has there been one possessed of complete sincerity who did not move others. Never has there been one who had not sincerity who was able to move others.

If you know that a thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it–why wait till next year?

The great man does not think beforehand of his words that they may be sincere, nor of his actions that they may be resolute- he simply speaks and does what is right.

A small country cannot contend with a great; the few cannot contend with the many; the weak cannot contend with the strong.

Only when a woman decides not to have children, can a woman live like a man. That’s what I’ve done.

I’m sure that someday children in schools will study the history of the men who made war as you study an absurdity. They’ll be shocked, just as today we’re shocked with cannibalism.

My wife wanted my children to have some Chinese culture and education. She believes the children need to learn two languages and two cultures.

I am a better mother for having something in my life and not just my children.

If men gave birth, they’d be less inconsiderate.

Indigo child, you hid secret under graves, picked at the lamb stuck between teeth, felt around for monsters we once reaped. But the monster turned out to be free.

I can’t cultivate a relationship with my child if it’s between takes. I tried that on a movie and realized, ‘This is not going to work.’ It will work some of the year, but not 12 months a year.

Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.