If the people are governed by laws and punishment is used to maintain order, they will try to avoid the punishment but have no sense of shame. If they are governed by virtue and rules of propriety are used to maintain order, they will have a sense of shame and will become good as well.

When a man is guided by the principles of reciprocity and consciousness, he is not far from the moral law. Whatever you don't wish for yourself don't do unto others.

The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat.

If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?

If doing what ought to be done be made the first business and success a secondary consideration--is not this the way to exalt virtue?

If one is guided by profit in one's actions, one will incur much ill will.

Study the past, if you would divine the future.