Learn as if you could not reach your object and were always fearing also lest you should lose it.--CONFUCIAN AN., T'ae Pih (ch. xvii.).
King Wan looked on the people as he would on a man who was wounded, and he looked toward the right path as if he could not see it.--MENCIUS, Le Low (pt. ii., ch. xx.).
To nourish the heart there is nothing better than to make the desires few.--MENCIUS, Tsin Sin (ch. xxxv.).
When Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.--MENCIUS, Kaou Tsze (pt. ii. ch. xv.).
You should ever stand in awe of the punishment of Heaven.--SHOO KING, ii.; Prince of Leu on Punishments.
Great Heaven is intelligent and is with you in all your doings. Great Heaven is clear-seeing, and is with you in all your wanderings and indulgences.--SHE KING, ii., Major Odes, the Pan.
Ke Loo asked about serving the spirits of the dead. The Master said, "While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve their spirits?" Ke Loo added, "I venture to ask about death." He was answered, "While you do not know life, how can you know about death?"--CONFUCIAN AN., Seen Tsin (ch. xi.).
For all affairs let there be adequate preparation. With preparation there will be no calamities.--SHOO KING, Charge of Yue (ch. i.).
As to what the superior man would feel to be a calamity, there is no such thing. He does nothing which is not according to propriety. If there should befall him one morning's calamity, the superior man does not account it a calamity.--MENCIUS, Le Low (pt. ii., ch. xxviii.).
God is with you, have no doubts in your heart.--SHE KING, Decade of King Wan II.
Beware. What proceeds from you will return to you again.--MENCIUS, King Hwuy (pt. ii., ch. xii.).
Show reverence for the weak.--SHOO KING, Timber of the Tsze Tree (ch. iii.).
When the year becomes cold, then we know how the pine and the cypress are the last to lose their leaves; _i.e._, men are not known save in times of adversity.--CONFUCIAN AN., Tsze Han (ch. xxvii.).