May we live like the lotus, at home in muddy water.
Our good and bad deeds follow us almost like a shadow.
Better is to speak unpleasant truth than to tell lies.
It is wrong to think that misfortunes come from the east or from the west; they originate within one's own mind.
To have much learning, to be skillful in handicraft, well-trained in discipline, and to be of good speech -- this is the greatest blessing.
But if you do not find an intelligent companion, a wise and well-behaved person going the same way as yourself, then go on your way alone, like a king abandoning a conquered kingdom, or like a great elephant in the deep forest.