If mortals wait until the gods remake the world to their liking to be happy, they are already in hell.

Principles have a way of yielding to power.

Like most Chinese, I am basically a fatalist - too sophisticated for religion and too superstitious to deny the gods.

What harm is there in dreaming, if it eases pain? What good is reality, if it blots out hope? Can a man's mind be washed without bleaching his soul?

Nothing fruitful ever comes when plants are forced to flower in the wrong season.

If mortals wait until the gods remake the world to their liking to be happy, they are already in hell.

A secret, like a chore, always seems to lead to another, one even more troublesome than the first.