Valuing unusual conduct is not as good as being careful about ordinary actions.

If those who give are conscious of their own generosity and those who receive feel indebted, they are no longer family but rather strangers doing business.

There is much meaning in the word endure. For example, when dealing with unstable human feelings and uneven pathways in life, without endurance to hold you up, you may fall into a pit in the brush.

Those who have come to an impasse should examine their original intentions; those who have succeeded should note where they are heading.

To notice people's deceptions yet not reveal it in words, to bear people's insults without showing any change of attitude-there is endless meaning in this, and also endless function.

If a poor house is well kept, or a poor girl well groomed, there is elegance if not beauty. If good people should come upon hard times, why should they immediately give up on themselves?

Human affairs are like a chess game. Only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players.

Attention is the mind's feet; if you do not control your attention strictly, it runs into misleading pathways.

If the mind is illumined, there is clear blue sky in a dark room. If the thoughts are muddled, there are malevolent ghosts in broad daylight.

In dealing with good people one should be magnanimous; in dealing with bad people one should be strict. In dealing with average people one should combine magnanimity and strictness.

Fishing is a pleasure of retirement, yet the angler has the power to let the fish live or die.

The Bible is the only Book in the world that predicts the future. The Bible is more modern than tomorrow morning’s newspaper.

If parents were as concerened about raising their children as they are about the outcome of their sitcom or sports game, this nation would thrive.

[But] I have come across anything so painfully beautiful as that kiss. I wish it was something I could save and share with the world so I could tell the universe: this is what it's like

It's like looking through a microscope your whole life, " he (Justin) said. "You miss the whole picture. Sometimes you need to get lost in order to discover anything.

his conscience washed clean by happiness.

Our present world contains clues...to another world-a world which we can begin to experience now, but will only know in all its fullness at the end of things.

Praise doesn't mean anything to me. I don't judge myself.

Don't hate the player, Todd, hate the game.

It is not difficult to govern. All one has to do is not to offend the noble families.

Writing has been a way of explaining to myself the things I do not understand.