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

Evil exists to glorify the good. Evil is negative good. It is a relative term. Evil can be transmuted into good. What is evil to one at one time, becomes good at another time to somebody else.

The regular path of virtue is to be pursued without any bend, and from no view to emolument.

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

Charity is in the heart of man, and righteousness in the path of men. Pity the man who has lost his path and does not follow it and who has lost his heart and does not know how to recover it. When people's dogs and chicks are lost they go out and look for them and yet the people who have lost their hearts do not go out and look for them. The principle of self-cultivation consists in nothing but trying to look for the lost heart.

Virtue alone is not sufficient for the exercise of government; laws alone cannot carry themselves into practice.

It is not difficult to govern. All one has to do is not to offend the noble families.