Quotations from Chinese Culture

1. Heaven walks with health, and a gentleman strives for self-improvement.

-The Book of Zhou Yi (Translation: As a gentleman, one should have a strong will, a never-ending spirit of struggle, and endeavor to strengthen one's self-cultivation and to complete and develop one's studies or career, and to be able to do so in order to embody the will of Heaven and to live up to the duties and talents given by the universe to a gentleman).

2. Do not do evil, do not do good.

--Three Kingdoms (Translation: For any thing, do not do it just because it is a very small and inconspicuous bad thing; on the contrary, for something tiny. but good thing that benefits others, do not refrain from doing it because it is of little significance.)

3. Seeing good as less than good, and seeing bad as probing for soup.

--The Analects of Confucius (Translation: When you see a good person, you are afraid that it is too late to learn from him, and when you see something good, you are afraid that it is too late to do it. When you see an evil person or a bad thing, it is like coming into contact with water that is hot to the touch; you must leave at once and avoid it far away.)

4. If you bow to your own generosity and blame others thinly, you will be far from grudges.

-The Analects of Confucius (Translation: "To take the main responsibility for a fault is to be thicker, and to be more understanding and more tolerant of others is to be less responsible for others". In this way, there will be no resentment towards each other.)

5. The future is not welcome, the time is not mixed, the past is not love.

--Zeng Guofan "Zeng Hu Zhi Bing Quotes" (translation: put all the attention on the present, regardless of the past, regardless of the future, regardless of the surrounding, do the most important thing to do at the moment.)

6. Seeing the virtuous and thinking of the wise, and seeing the unwise, but also internal self-examination.

--The Analects of Confucius (Translation: When you see someone who has strengths and merits that exceed your own in a certain area, you should ask for advice with an open mind, study carefully, and find ways to catch up with him and reach the same level as him; when you see someone who has some kind of shortcomings or deficiencies, you should calmly reflect on yourself to see if you have the same kind of shortcomings or deficiencies that he has.)

7. Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you.

- The Analects of Confucius (Translation: What you don't want for yourself (pain, disaster, woe ......), don't impose it on others.)

8. Dang Ren, do not let the teacher.

-"The Analects of Confucius" (Translation: When one encounters a good deed that should be done, one should not hesitate to do it, and one should rush to do it even if the teacher is at one side. Later, it was developed into the idiom of "Being kind").

9. A gentleman wants to be prudent in speech but sensitive in action.

The Analects of Confucius (Translation: A gentleman is not boastful in speech, but agile and deft in action).

10. When two people are of one mind, their profits are broken by gold; when they speak with one mind, their odor is like orchids.

--Zhou Yi (Translation: Those who work together with one heart are strong enough to break hard metals; those who express unanimous opinions with one heart are so persuasive that they are readily accepted by people as if they were smelling a fragrant orchid scent.)