Idleness is a great enemy to mankind. There is no friend like energy, for, if you cultivate that, it will never fail.

Trees bend low with ripened fruit; clouds hang down with gentle rain; noble people bow graciously. This is the way of generous things.

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

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

Idleness is a great enemy to mankind. There is no friend like energy, for, if you cultivate that, it will never fail.

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.