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?

Principles have a way of yielding to power.

In yielding we are like the water, by nature placid, conforming to the hollow of the smallest hand; in time, shaping even the mountains to its will. Thus we keep duty and honor. We cherish clan and civilization. We are Chinese.

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

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

you must not use wood to put out the fire.