To act without clear understanding, to form habits without investigation, to follow a path all one's life without knowing where it really leads; such is the behavior of the multitude.

Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue, and does not admit of assumptions of superiority.

Friendship is one mind in two bodies.

All things are complete within ourselves.

People are eager to comment on something when they themselves are not in the situation of doing it.

When I say that all men have the mind which cannot bear to see the suffering of others, my meaning is illustrated this way: when two men suddenly see a child about to fall into a well, they all have a feeling of alarm and distress, not to gain friendship with the child's parents, nor to seek the praise of their neighbors and friends. From such a case, we see that a man without the feeling of commiseration is not a man. The feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity.

Every duty is a charge, but the charge of oneself is the root of all others.