If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction.

There are successful scholars, public-spirited scholars, upright scholars, cautious scholars, and those who are merely petty men.

Misery is evil; quarreling, a misfortune. There is only one possibility of avoiding both: a clear division of society. [Otherwise] the strong tyrannize the weak, the intelligent frighten the stupid, the inferior resist the superior, and the young mock the old.

Human nature is such that people are born with a love of profit If they follow these inclinations, they will struggle and snatch from each other, and inclinations to defer or yield will die.

A person is born with feelings of envy and hate. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to violence and crime, and any sense of loyalty and good faith will be abandoned.

Human nature refers to what is in people but which they cannot study or work at achieving.

I once tried standing up on my toes to see far out in the distance, but I found that I could see much farther by climbing to a high place.