十年樹木，百年樹人

When a man is warmed by the several modes which I have described, what does he want next? Surely not more warmth of the same kind, as more and richer food, larger and more splendid houses, finer and more abundant clothing, more numerous, incessant, and hotter fires, and the like. When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to adventure on life now, his vacation from humbler toil having commenced.
    The soil, it appears, is suited to the seed, for it has sent its radicle downward, and it may now send its shoot upward also with confidence. Why has man rooted himself thus firmly in the earth, but that he may rise in the same proportion into the heavens above? – for the nobler plants are valued for the fruit they bear at last in the air and light, far from the ground, and are not treated like the humbler esculents, which, though they may be biennials, are cultivated only till they have perfected their root, and often cut down at top for this purpose, so that most would not know them in their flowering season.

當人們已經滿足了生活最基本的需要，當然還可以繼續買房來當包租公婆，還可以買幾個衣櫉來掛永遠穿不到的衣服，還可以把自己吃得腦滿腸肥。但，我們還可以有另一種選擇，那即是，開始探索自己的生命。既然卑微的辛勞已經結束，便可以開始放長假了，不必等到退休。土壤即是種子的生活所需。種子將它的胚根往下送，然後它的芽，會帶著信念，往上伸。

正所謂「十年樹木，百年樹人」，樹木把根在土地裡紮得愈穩，就能長得更高、更接近上天。家國社會栽培一個人，不是只讓他成為可食用植物，只要根長齊了，連花也不給開，便將它刨取，而是讓它成材（才）。