XXVI.

A person grows wiser by learning from the setbacks he suffered. True knowledge comes from one’s own experience. Secondhand experience is worth little.

XXVII.

Nothing hurts more than conceit. Claim to know what you actually do not and people will turn their back on you, leaving you in the cold. How can you tell an honest person from a wise person? An honest person is one who does not pretend to know what he does not; a wise person is one who does not say more than what the occasion demands. Both persons keep conceit away.

XXVIII.

One owes one’s success to external factors that tap one’s potential. A solitary piece of wood by itself can never make a house, and it takes meticulous processing to reveal the beauty of jade stones.

XXIX.

Be aware that regret is an enemy of success, or you will be regretting day after day. The time spent on regretting could well be used for action. Therefore, do not let action be replaced by regretting. Once you realize that this is the Way, there will be no time for regretting whatsoever.

XXX.

A protracted dispute is wrong on both sides. Why? Entangled in such a dispute, both sides see only the faults of the opposing party and the merits of his own. Continuing dispute will but increase the wrongdoing. When one realizes that the other party is as annoyed as he is, one is apt to withdraw from the dispute.