I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Great as heaven and earth are, men still find some things in them with which to be dissatisfied. Thus it is that, were the superior man to speak of his way in all its greatness, nothing in the world would be found able to embrace it, and were he to speak of it in its minuteness, nothing in the world would be found able to split it.

The true gentleman does not preach what he practices till he has practiced what he preaches.

Learning, undigested by thought, is labor lost.

As the water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it, so a wise man adapts himself to circumstances.

The Master said of Gong Yechang, “He is marriageable. Although he was once imprisoned and branded as a criminal, he was in fact innocent of any crime.” The Master gave him his daughter in marriage. (Analects 5.1)

Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.