1. The organ of the heart is thinking. If you think, you can get it. If you don’t think, you can’t get it.
2. The heart of compassion is the root of benevolence; the heart of shame and disgust is the root of righteousness; the heart of resignation is the root of courtesy; the heart of right and wrong is the root of wisdom.
3. If you don’t follow the rules, you won’t be able to form a circle.
4. The most important thing for people to know each other is to know each other. The most important thing for people to know each other is to understand each other.
5. If you don’t have close relatives, you can’t be a human being; if you don’t have close relatives, you can’t be a son.
6. If a king is benevolent, he will never be unkind; if a king is righteous, he will never be unjust; if he is upright, he will never be unjust.
7. If you are not ashamed and inferior to others, how can you be like a human being?
8. Only benevolent people should be in high positions. Being unkind and holding a high position is spreading evil to others.
9. A gentleman has three kinds of happiness, but the king of the world does not share them. Having both parents and brothers without any reason is one kind of happiness; looking up to heaven and not being ashamed of others is the second kind of happiness; being able to educate the talented people from all over the world is the third kind of happiness.
10. It is used to resemble people. This is why the people of Sri Lanka died of hunger.
11. Benevolence is better than unkindness, just like water is better than fire. Nowadays, a person who is benevolent is like using a cup of water to save a load of fire. If it is not extinguished, it is said that water cannot overcome the fire. This is also the case with those who are unkind, and they will eventually perish.
12. It is not benevolent to kill someone without sin, and it is not righteous to take something that does not exist.
13. For a five-acre house with mulberry trees, a person in his fifties can wear silk clothes.
14. Everyone can be Yao and Shun.
15. I know my words and I am good at cultivating my awe-inspiring spirit.
16. If you are poor, you will be good for yourself; if you are rich, you will be good for the world.
17. A promising person is like digging a well. If the well is dug nine times and fails to reach the spring, it is like abandoning the well.
18. To live widely in the world, to establish the right position in the world, to walk the great road of the world, to be determined by the people, and not to be determined to follow one's own way.
19. Those who love others will always be loved by others; those who respect others will always be respected by others.
20. If the emperor is unkind, he will not protect the world; if the princes are unkind, he will not protect the country; if the ministers and officials are unkind, they will not protect the ancestral temple; if the scholars and common people are unkind, they will not protect the four bodies.
21. If I want to bring peace to the world, who else can I do in this world?
22. The sage uses his enlightenment to make others enlighten, but now he uses his faintness to make others enlighten.
23. Fish is what I want, and bear’s paws are also what I want; you cannot have both, and you would give up fish and take bear’s paws. Life is what I want, and righteousness is also what I want. You cannot have both, and you have to sacrifice life for righteousness.
24. Therefore, when Heaven is about to entrust a person with a great responsibility, he must first strain his mind and will, strain his muscles and bones, starve his body and skin, deplete his heart, and confuse his actions. Therefore, if he is tempted to endure, he has Benefit from what it cannot do.
25. Respect the virtuous and enable the capable, and the outstanding ones will reign.
26. To nourish the heart, don’t be good at having few desires.
27. In a country of ten thousand chariots, those who kill its king will surely have a house of ten thousand chariots. In a country of a thousand chariots, the one who kills its king will surely have a house of a hundred chariots.
28. Those who advance sharply will retreat quickly.
29. Do not rely on elders, do not rely on nobles, do not rely on brothers but make friends.