The Master said: To learn, and to practise on occasion what one has learnt – is this not true pleasure? The coming of a friend from a far-off land – is this not true joy?

Make conscientiousness and sincerity your grand object. Have
no friends not equal to yourself. If you have done wrong, be not
ashamed to make amends.

Observe the bent of a man’s will when his father is alive, and his actions after his father is dead. If during the three years of mourning he does not swerve from his father’s principles, he may be pronounced a truly filial son.

The Odes are three hundred in number, but their purport may be summed up in a word: – Have no depraved thoughts.

Observe a man’s actions; scrutinize his motives; take note of the things that give him pleasure. How then can he hide from you what he really is?