Unify your attention. Do not listen with your ears, but with your mind. Do not listen with your mind but with your essence.

There may be men who act without understanding why. I do not. To listen much, pick out the good and follow it; to see much and ponder it: this comes next to understanding.

Be loyal to yourself, charitable to neighbours, nothing more.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

The scholar does not consider gold and jade to be precious treasures, but loyalty and good faith.

Every piece of marble has a statue in it waiting to be released by a person of sufficient skill to chip away the unnecessary parts. Just as the sculptor is to the marble, so is education to the soul. It releases it. For only educated people are free people. You cannot create a statue by smashing the marble with a hammer, and you cannot by the force of arms release the spirit or the soul of people.

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?