prophecies do not alter fate, only confirm it.
to ask for anything of consequence from friends who cannot refuse is uncivilized.
Principles have a way of yielding to power.
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?
The young see what they wish to see. The old see what they do not wish.
Like most Chinese, I am basically a fatalist - too sophisticated for religion and too superstitious to deny the gods.