1. If you persevere, the rotten wood will not be broken; if you persevere, the metal and stone can be carved - Xunzi

Source: "Encouraging Learning"

Interpretation: If If you don't persist in doing things, you won't be able to break even the rotten wood easily. If you can persevere in doing things, even hard objects like gold and stone can be carved with beautiful patterns. The implication is that you should persevere in doing things and never give up easily.

2. Life is about hard work, nothing will be gained without asking for anything. ——Zhang Heng

Source: "Yingxian"

Interpretation: If you don't work hard to seek and pursue, how can you gain anything in life? You should search hard in life, otherwise you will not gain anything. It shows Zhang Heng’s diligent and enterprising pursuit of life.

3. Scholars are like beetles in books, and their hard work in carving seals is in vain. ——Liu Guo of the Song Dynasty

Source; "Military Music"

Interpretation: Studying to death is like a bookworm. No matter how hard you work, it is useless.

4. I haven’t seen the garden for three years, and I call myself a disciple of the Five Classics. ——Yuan Ma Zuchang

Source: "Zhuang You"

Interpretation: I haven't gone to the garden in three years, and I have become a box for the Five Classics. This sentence highlights the huge gains I have made through hard study.

5. If you don’t accumulate steps, you can’t reach a thousand miles; if you don’t accumulate small streams, you can’t become a river. ——Xunzi

Source: Xunzi's "Encouragement to Learning"

Interpretation: Without the accumulation of steps and half steps, there is no way to reach a place thousands of miles away; without the accumulation of small rivers, there is no way Converging into rivers and seas.