If the quickness of the mind and the fluency of the tongue are too punctilious and sharp, moderate them in your activity and rest.

Thus, anybody who follows this nature and gives way its states will be led into quarrels and conflicts, and go against the conventions and rules of society, and will end up a criminal.

If the gentleman has ability, he is magnanimous, generous, tolerant, and straightforward, through which he opens the way to instruct others.

The nature of man is evil; what is good in him is artificial.

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.

Since the nature of people is bad, to become corrected they must be taught by teachers and to be orderly they must acquire ritual and moral principles.

They are done merely for ornament. ... the common people regard them as supernatural.