诸葛亮 wrote it near the end of his life to his eight-year-old son
诸葛瞻, and it runs to only 86 characters. It teaches that a gentleman cultivates himself through calm and builds his virtue through thrift, and it contains the lines
非淡泊无以明志，
非宁静无以致远 'without detachment no clear purpose, without calm no reaching far'.
