This is the mark of a perfect character - to pass through each day as though it were the last, without agitation, without torpor, and without pretense.

Why should anyone be afraid of change? What can take place without it? What can be more pleasing or more suitable to universal nature? Can you take your bath without the firewood undergoing a change? Can you eat without the food undergoing a change? And can anything useful be done without change? Don't you see that for you to change is just the same, and is equally necessary for universal nature?

Observe and contemplate on the hidden things of life: how a man's seed is but the beginning, it takes others to bring it to fruition. Think how food undergoes such changes to produce health and strength. See the power of these hidden things which, like the wind cannot been seen, but its effects can be.

Snow endures but for a season, and joy comes with the morning.

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.

Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.

The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.