The test of a civilization is in the way that it cares for its helpless members

The main barrier between East and West today is that the white man is not willing to give up his superiority and the colored man is no longer willing to endure his inferiority.

Somehow I had learned from Thoreau, who doubtless learned it from Confucius, that if a man comes to do his own good for you, then must you flee that man and save yourself

Every event has had its cause, and nothing, not the least wind that blows, is accident or causeless.

It is better to be first with an ugly woman than the hundreth with a beauty.

Chinese were bornwith an accumulated wisdom, a natural sophistication, an intelligent naivete, and unless they were transplanted too young, these qualities ripened in them.... If ever I am homesick for China, now that I am home in my own country, it is when I discover here no philosophy. Our people have opinions and creeds and prejudices and ideas but as yet no philosophy.

We send missionaries to China so the Chinese can get to heaven, but we won't let them into our country.