To Confucius, the cultivation of "ren" involved depreciating oneself through modesty while avoiding artful speech and ingratiating manners that would create a false impression of one's own character ("Analects" 1.3). Confucius said that those who had cultivated "ren" could be distinguished by their being "simple in manner and slow of speech." He believed that people could cultivate their sense of "ren" through exercising the inverted Golden Rule: "Do not do to others what you would not like done to yourself"; "a man with "ren", desiring to establish himself, helps others establish themselves; desiring to succeed himself, helps others to succeed" ("Analects" 12.2; 6.28).