We should not be too familiar with the lower orders or with women.

Settle one difficulty, and you keep a hundred away.

If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone else.

All men are born good.

Lead the people with administrative injunctions and put them in their place with penal law, and they will avoid punishments but will be without a sense of shame. Lead them with excellence and put them in their place through roles and ritual practices, and in addition to developing a sense of shame, they will order themselves harmoniously

The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous are long-lived.

An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.