If what the heart approves conforms to proper patterns, then even if one's desires are many, what harm would they be to good order?

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

Men of all social stations live together: they are equal in their desires, yet vary in their methods; they are equal in their passions, yet different in their intelligence; that is their nature-given vitality.

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.

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

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.

If you wish to see the thousand years, look at today; if you wish to understand the millionfold, then look at the one or the two.