Shengren – Chapter 1 – No Country for Sages

大哉圣人之道！洋洋乎！发育万物，峻极于天，优优大哉！礼仪三百，威仪三千，待其人而后行.故曰，苟不至德，至道不凝焉。故君子尊德性而道问学，致广大而尽精微，极高明而道中庸. 溫故而知新，敦厚以崇礼.

How great is the path proper to the Sage! Like overflowing water, it sends forth and nourishes all things, and rises up to the height of heaven. All-complete is its greatness! It embraces the three hundred rules of ceremony, and the three thousand rules of demeanor. It waits for the proper man, and then it is trodden. Hence it is said, “Only by perfect virtue can the perfect path, in all its courses, be made a fact.” Therefore, the superior man honors his virtuous nature, and he maintains constant inquiry and study, seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces, and to raise it to its greatest height and brilliancy, so as to pursue the course of the Mean. He cherishes his old knowledge, and is continually acquiring new. He exerts an honest, generous earnestness, in the esteem and practice of all propriety.[1]

– Confucius, The Doctrine of the Mean