The buyer has need of a hundred eyes, the seller but one. Buying and selling is but winning and losing. The fish sees the bait, not the hook; a man sees the gain, not the danger. Human beings die in pursuit of wealth, and birds die in pursuit of food. The higher the price, the better the quality of the merchandise. We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. We know the worth of a thing when we have lost it. The cow knows not what her tail is worth until she has lost it. When going out, he dresses as if he were a gentleman, but there is no rice to cook after returning home. Sloth is the mother of poverty. A bad compromise is better than a successful suit. A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit. A duck which exists in the middle of the seventh Chinese lunar month isn’t aware that he is facing a critical juncture between life and death.