Principles have a way of yielding to power..

Nothing fruitful ever comes when plants are forced to flower in the wrong season..

prophecies do not alter fate, only confirm it..

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

The young see what they wish to see. The old see what they do not wish..

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?.

to ask for anything of consequence from friends who cannot refuse is uncivilized..

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. ….

you must not use wood to put out the fire..

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

If mortals wait until the gods remake the world to their liking to be happy, they are already in hell..