The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom first ordered well their own states.  Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families.  Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons.  Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts.  Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts.  Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge.  Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.   Confucius in the Great Learning.

For the first time I noticed – as I would notice repeatedly during my ordeal, between one throe of agony and the next – that my suffering was taking place in a grand setting.  I saw my suffering for what it was, finite and insignificant, and I was still.  My suffering did not fit anywhere, I realized.  And I could accept this.  It was all right. (It was daylight that brought my protest: “No! No! No! My suffering does matter.  I want to live!  I can’t help but mix my life with that of the universe.  Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness – how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped view I have of things?  This peephole is all I’ve got!”).  I mumbled words of Muslim prayer and went back to sleep.  Life of Pi (Novel by Yann Martel)

Attack the evil that is within yourself, rather than attacking the evil that is in others.  Confucius

When you see a good person, think of becoming like her/him.  When you see someone not so good, reflect on your own weak points.  Confucius

Your task is not to seek love, but merely to see and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.  Rumi