Let a man be stimulated by poetry, established by the rules of propriety, and perfected by music.

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

Study the past, if you would divine the future.

The Master said, The case is like that of someone raising a mound. If he stops working, the fact that it perhaps needed only one more basketful makes no difference; I stay where I am. Whereas even if he has not got beyond leveling the ground, but is still at work, the fact that he has only tilted one basketful of earth makes no difference. I go to help him.

When the Superior Man eats he does not try to stuff himself; at rest he does not seek perfect comfort; he is diligent in his work and careful in speech. He avails himself to people of the Tao and thereby corrects himself. This is the kind of person of whom you can say, "he loves learning."

If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it's OK. But you've got to shoot for something. A lot of people don't even shoot.

When one cultivates to the utmost the principles of his nature, and exercises them on the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path.