Don't be concerned about others not appreciating you. Be concerned about your not appreciating others.

When a man comes to me, I accept him at his best, not at his worst. Why make so much ado? When a man washes his hands before paying a visit, and you receive him in that clean state, you do not thereby stand surety for his always having been clean in the past.

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 must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.

True knowledge is when one knows the limitations of one's knowledge.

Bird in hand makes it harder to blow nose.

That a man lives is because he is straight. That a man who dupes others survives is because he has been fortunate enough to be spared.

If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others.