Excessive anger brings terror, and untimely kindness diminishes respect. Do not be so harsh that people become weary of you, nor so gentle that they become emboldened against you.

Harshness and gentleness combined are best,

Like a bloodletter who is both a surgeon and a healer.

A wise person does not choose harshness

Nor weakness that diminishes their own worth.

They neither place themselves above others,

Nor completely submit themselves to humiliation.

A shepherd said to his father: O wise one,

Teach me an old man's advice.

He said: Be virtuous, but not so much

That the sharp-toothed wolf becomes emboldened.