When you talk with famous scholars, the best thing is to pretend that occasionally you do not quite understand them. If you understand too little, you will be despised; if you understand too much, you will be disliked; if you just fail occasionally to understand them, you will suit each other very well.

I could not blot out hope, for hope belongs to the future.

But anyone who thinks themselves genuinely unbiased is bound to be taken in.

To protect myself from the rear, I have to stand slantwise.

When a great man has become petrified, and everyone begins to proclaim his greatness, he has already turned into a puppet.

True, we must dare look things in the face before we dare think, speak, act, or assume responsibility. If we dare not even look, what else are we good for?

I entreat fresh visions from the painters. Be lavish with your vermilion to portray the mountains in the spring.