Alas, great is my sorrow. Your name is Ah Chen, and when you were born I was not truly pleased. I am a farmer, and a farmer needs strong sons to help with his work, but before a year had passed you ha...
Ginseng hunters refer to the plant as chang-diang shen, the root of lightning, because it is believed that it appears only on the spot where a small mountain spring has been dried up by a lightning bo...
The mind is a miser, he said. Nothing is ever thrown away, and it's amazing what you can find if you dig deep enough.
I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world.
Our senses are woefully limited. Our brains are but tiny candles flickering in an infinity of darkness. Our only wisdom is to admit that we cannot understand, and since we cannot understand we must do...
Mystery and terror are the bulwarks of tyranny.
I used to love history class. I can still quote whole passages by heart: When the emperor entered the Hall of Balming Virtue, a violent wind came from a dark corner, and out of it slithered a giant se...
Nothing on the face of this earth - and I do mean nothing - is half so dangerous as a children's story that happens to be real...
Is it any wonder that our greatest men have lurched rather than walked across the landscape as they hiccupped their way into history? Sir, that’s the best autobiography I ever heard! I said enthusiast...
Begin at the beginning as you understood it, proceed through the middle, continue to the end, and then stop," said Master Li, and he sauntered out to get drunk....
Of course there is a slight chance that somebody might want to give the Celestial Bookmaker a heart attack.
I have never been able to understand why perfectly sensible people waste time being wittily obscure instead of just saying what they want and going on about their business.
I have decided that the problem with poetic justice is that it never knows when to stop.
Boy, just look at the soul shining through my eyes! It’s like a goddamned flower!
Ox, at an early age a Chinese genius gazes at the path that lies ahead and reaches for a wine jar, Master Li said. Is it any wonder that our greatest men have lurched rather than walked across the lan...
Fable has strong shoulders that carry far more truth than fact can.
A fool will study for twenty or thirty years and learn how to do something, but a wise man will study for twenty or thirty minutes and become an expert. In this world, it isn't ability that counts, bu...
The problem with poetic justice is that it never knows when to stop.
The emotional health of a village depended upon having a man whom everyone hated.
Show me a quest for personal immortality and I'll show you a path through a slaughterhouse, and the incense of personal divinity is the stench of other people's corpses.