“Only when there are things a man will not do is he capable of doing great things.”

“If someone stops where they should not, they’ll stop anywhere. If someone slights a person they should treat generously, they’ll slight anyone. And if someone races ahead, they retreat in a hurry.”

“For nurturing the mind, there’s nothing like paring your desires away to a very few. If you have few desires, there may still be some capricious whims in your mind, but they’ll be few. If you have many desires, there may be some enduring principles in your mind, but they’ll be few indeed.”

“Integrity, wisdom, skill, intelligence – such things are forged in adversity.”

“There’s only one way to know if people are good or evil: look at the choices they make. We each contain precious and worthless, great and small. Never injure the great for the sake of the small, or the precious for the sake of the worthless. Small people nurture what is small in them; great people nurture what is great in them.”

“Words that defy reality are ominous. And it’s ominous reality that confronts those who would obscure the wise and worthy.”

“Words that speak of things close at hand and carry far-reaching implications – those are the good words.”

“Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.”

“Secure property in hand leads to peace in mind.”

“Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue.”

“Friendship is one mind in two bodies.”