The Art of Self Cultivation, contains hundreds of individual quotations drawn from over 2,000 years of Chinese history.

The Art of Self Cultivation comprises quotations that are concerned with what in Chinese is termed xiushen-which translates roughly as self cultivation. One Chinese encyclopedia defines it as the nurture of body and mind in order to strengthen and raise the level of one's sense of morality. This book addresses individual behavior and conduct from the essentials of character such as morality, through activities like the acquisition of knowledge and the techniques of learning to the norms of correct social behavior.

Sources range from early philosophers such as Confucius and the Daoist philosopher Li Er, to early historians like Ban Gu and Sima Qian, through the poets and officials of the brilliant Tang and Song dynasties and on to the writers that flourished in the 17th to 19th centuries.