Study the past if you would define the future. I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there. Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

When you see a worthy person, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy person, then examine your inner self.

What can a man do with music who is not benevolent?

If my mind be not engaged in worship, it is as though I worshipped not.

When you have become one with the Great Universal, you will have no partiality, and when you are part of the process of transformation, you will have no rigidity.

Guide them by edicts, keep them in line with punishments, and the common people will stay out of trouble but will have no sense of shame. Guide them by virtue, keep them in line with the rites, and they will, besides having a sense of shame, reform themselves.

Of all that Heaven produces and nourishes, there is none so great as man.