It is unfortunate for the gods that, unlike us, they cannot commit suicide.

..he understood far more deeply than anyone else the loneliness that lurked beneath his jaunty mask.

Isn't there someone kind enough to come strangle me in my sleep?

I have heard unsavory rumors about you and the umbrella-maker's daughter

No matter how accomplished one might be in any branch of learning or art, one would have to be condemned to hell, if on where not endowed with th five cardinal virtues of Confucius-benevolence, justice, courtesy, wisdom and fidelity

I could have sworn that the man's eyes were no longer watching his daughter dying in agony, that instead the gorgeous colors of flames and the sight of a woman suffering in them were giving him joy beyond measure.

A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled. Those who laugh at this folly are, after all, no more than mere spectators of life.