Think no vice so small that you may commit it, and no virtue so small that you may over look it.

Excess and deficiency are equally at fault.

On matters beyond his ken a gentleman speaks with caution. If names are not right, words are misused. When words are misused, affairs go wrong. When affairs go wrong, courtesy and music droop, law and justice fail. And when law and justice fail them, a people can move neither hand nor foot. So a gentleman must be ready to put names in speech, to put words into deeds. A gentleman is nowise careless of words.

If Language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant. If what is said is not what is meant, then what ought to be done, remains undone.

The superior man cannot be known in little matters, but he may be entrusted with great concerns. The small man may not be entrusted with great concerns, but he may be known in little matters.

The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does.

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! Virtue is at hand.