1. Be gracious on the outside, firm within, with a needle hidden in cotton.
2. Resent others for having what you lack, laugh at those who have nothing, look down on the poor, and fear the rich.
3. Compassion makes a poor general, righteousness a poor steward of money, sentiment a poor foundation for achievement, and kindness a poor qualification for office.
4. People are tempered by experience, just as a blade is sharpened on stone.
5. If you love arguing over who's better in public, you'll surely gossip behind people's backs.
6. Don't fear a tiger or wolf sitting before you. Fear the double-edged blade hidden among people.
7. Leave a beggar's stick outside your door, and not even relatives or old friends will come calling.
8. Judge things accurately, endure what comes, strike hard, and handle the aftermath steadily.
9. Heaven creates no useless people, and earth grows no nameless grass.
10. You may challenge a mountain, but not the water. You may deceive someone, but never their heart.
11. Have nine parts real skill and one part ability to bluff.
12. Seek common ground while accepting differences; live in harmony without being the same.
13. Asking others for help is like swallowing a three-foot sword; relying on others is like climbing to the ninth heaven. 6
14. Keep your composure whenever something important happens.
15. Work in one trade, resent it all your life, and you'll never master it.
16. Win people's hearts, and water flowers at the roots.
17. A married couple are birds of the same forest, but when disaster strikes, each flies away alone.
