Great Throughts Treasury

"He whose mind is really set on virtue will do no evil."

"He who merely knows right principles is not equal to him who loves them."

"He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good."

"He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own."

"Few are those who err on the side of self-restraint."

"Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue."

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

"Cultivate unity. You do your hearing, not with your ears, but with your mind; not with your mind, but with your very soul. But let the hearing stop with the ears. Let the working of the mind stop with itself. Then the soul will be a negative existence, passively responsive to externals. In such a negative existence, only Tao can abide. And the negative state is the fasting of the heart."

"A superior man is the one who is free from fear and anxieties."

"A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions."

"A superior man is ashamed if his words are better than his deeds."

"A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it is committing another mistake."

"A good and virtuous wife is the most precious jewel of one's life."

"A man can enlarge his principles; his principles do not enlarge a man."

"A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do you know that his future will not be equal to our present?"

"A year's opportunities depend on the spring, a days' on the dawn, a family's on harmony, a life's on industry."

"A scholar who loves comfort is not fit to be called a scholar."

"Always and in everything let there be reverence."

"Do not to others what you would not like done to yourself."

"Everyone calls his son his son, whether he has talents or has not talents."

"For one word a man is often deemed wise; for one word he is often deemed foolish. We should be careful indeed in what we say."

"Artful speech and insinuating looks rarely accompany true virtue."

"Behave toward everyone as if receiving a great guest."

"Can true love be anything but exacting? How can our sense of duty allow us to abstain from admonition?"

"Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly."

"Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet."

"Do not be ashamed of mistakes - and so make them crimes."

"By promoting the straight and degrading the crooked, you can make even the crooked straight."

"He who knows the truth is not equal to him who loves it, and who loves it is not equal to him who delights in it."

"He who demands much from himself and little from others avoids resentment."

"He who learns but does not think is lost, he who thinks but does not learn is in danger."

"He who hears the truth in the morning may die in the evening without regret."

"Heaven means to be one with God."

"If a man take no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand."

"Grieve not that men do not know you; grieve that you do not know men."

"God, in giving life to all created things, is surely bountiful to them according to their qualities. Hence the tree that is full of life He fosters and sustains, while that which is ready to fall He cuts off and destroys."

"If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge, so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others."

"He who works for his own interests will arouse much animosity."

"In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of."

"In teaching there should be no class distinctions."

"If the ruler is good his people will be good."

"It is bootless to discuss accomplished facts, to protect against things past remedy, to find fault with things bygone."

"It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness."

"It is not possible for one to teach others who cannot teach his own family."

"Let mourning stop when one's grief is fully expressed."

"It is man that makes truth great, not truth that makes man great."

"Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished."

"Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without."

"Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated."

"Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself."