Counsel

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

— Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack

The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, preface

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

— Confucius, translated by James Legge, Analects, XIV.27