Rotten Wood Cannot Be Carved.

On Matters Beyond His Ken A Gentleman Speaks With Caution. If Names Are Not Right, Words Are Misused. When Words Are Misused, Affairs Go Wrong. When Affairs Go Wrong, Courtesy And Music Droop, Law And Justice Fail. And When Law And Justice Fail Them, A People Can Move Neither Hand Nor Foot. So A Gentleman Must Be Ready To Put Names In Speech, To Put Words Into Deeds. A Gentleman Is Nowise Careless Of Words.

The Master Said, The Case Is Like That Of Someone Raising A Mound. If He Stops Working, The Fact That It Perhaps Needed Only One More Basketful Makes No Difference; I Stay Where I Am. Whereas Even If He Has Not Got Beyond Leveling The Ground, But Is Still At Work, The Fact That He Has Only Tilted One Basketful Of Earth Makes No Difference. I Go To Help Him.

A Man Of Wisdom Delights In Water.

If A Man Is Not Good, What Has He To Do With The Rules Of Propriety? If He Is Not Good, What Has He To Do With Music?

Be Strict With Yourself But Least Reproachful Of Others And Complaint Is Kept Afar.