Moderation means prevention. Prevention means achieving much virtue.

Those who do not trust enough should not be trusted.

The sage regards things as difficult, and thereby avoids difficulty.

Is not the action of nature like the stretching of a bow? The high, it pulls down; the low, it lifts up; It takes from what is in excess In order to make good of what is deficient. Who can take what they have in excess and offer it to others?

Because he (the Sage) demands no honor, he will never be dishonored.

Every human being's essential nature is perfect and faultless, but after years of immersion in the world we easily forget our roots and take on a counterfeit nature.

Only I am clumsy, like drifting on the waves of the sea, without direction.