A good man may fall, but he falls like a ball [and rebounds]; the ignoble man falls like a lump of clay.

Trees loaded with fruit are bent down; the clouds when charged with fresh rain hang down near the earth: even so good men are not uplifted through prosperity. Such is the natural character of the liberal.

Let us keep a firm grip upon our money, for without it the whole assembly of virtues are but as blades of grass.

The constant man loses not his virtue in misfortune. A torch may point towards the ground, but its flame will still point upwards.

Those from whom we were born have long since departed, and those with whom we grew up exist only in memory. We, too, through the approach of death, become, as it were, trees growing on the sandy bank of a river.

The good man shuns evil and follows good; he keeps secret that which ought to be hidden; he makes his virtues manifest to all; he does not forsake one in adversity; he gives in season: such are the marks of a worthy friend.

Kindness can turn the bad man's heart, and fools convert to wise, Make poison into nectar-juice, and friends of enemies.