With gifts, you may gather your enemies about you. When giving nothing, even your own family will leave.

By depending on the great, The small may rise high. See: the little plant ascending the tall tree Has climbed to the top.

Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about.

With gifts, you may gather your enemies about you. When giving nothing, even your own family will leave.

Even in decline, a virtuous man increases the beauty of his behavior. A burning stick, though turned to the ground, has its flame drawn upwards.

It may be doubtful, at first, whether a person is an enemy or friend. Meat, if not properly digested, becomes poison; But poison, if used rightly, may turn medicinal.

If one is intelligent and applies himself well, what can he not accomplish? Even small bands of people, I have heard, have defeated whole armies.