Let those who hanker after the past return to the past! Let those who want to leave the world leave the world! Let those who want to ascend to heaven do so! Let those whose souls want to leave their bodies expire quickly! The earth today should be inhabited by man with a firm hold on the present, a firm hold on the earth.

Though science has given us many marvels, it has also spoiled many of our pleasant dreams.

It is in the nature of things that some people should be unlucky enough to get their heads chopped off.

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

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

True fighters dare face the sorrows of humanity, and look unflinchingly at bloodshed. What sorrow and joy are theirs! But the Creator's common device for ordinary people is to let the passage of time wash away old traces leaving only pale-red bloodstains and a vague pain; and he lets men live on ignobly and amid these, to keep this quasi-human world going.

Hope is like a path in the countryside.