Ge Hong Quotes

The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear favored by the gods.

A thousand pieces of gold may hardly bring a moment's happiness, but a small favor can cause a lifetime's gratitude. Too much love can turn to enmity, while aloofness can produce joy.

When you meet silent and inscrutable people, don't tell them what you are thinking. When you meet irritable and self-serving people, be careful what you say.

You're too young to decide to live forever.

Human life is difficult. But as this life is coming to an end, I consider myself lucky to have lived it.

Daughters-in-law lived with their husbands' parents, not their own; a synonym for marriage in Chinese is "taking a daughter-in-law.

Adultery is extravagance.

You can't eat straight A's.

Having inborn capabilities doesn't matter. Whether you can manage them or not, that's what determines the victory or defeat.

Show him your soft side too. Being too pretty and smart... Guys don't like when a woman is better than a man.

It's fun watching people get jealous over imitation bags thinking it's real.

Live how you want to live, not being influenced by others around you.

Entrepreneurship is not a civilized joust. It is streetfighting.

As an actor, demonstrating your feelings in front of people is not what you're supposed to be doing. You're supposed to hold your emotions and control them, and not show them all over the place.

There's something in life that's a curtain, and I keep trying to raise it.

I do not believe in old age. I do not believe in getting tired.

I am confirmed in my belief that war is utter destructive violent chaos. There is no "art," no "order(s)," no "just war." No matter what the ideologies, wars are the same.

It seems that writing chose me. I feel that because I know history, and I know the history of so many cultures; I have lived a large life.

My job is my own only land.

When I am composing, I try to clear my mind of having to publish, or having to sell a book or find readers. That kind of thinking gets in the way.

I'm so proud that my offspring became a musician. I'm full of awe that we are able to have a whole family live the life of artists.

...I've learned exactly who the enemy are. I easily recognize them-business-suited in their modern American executive guise, each boss two feet taller than I am and impossible to meet eye to eye.

Ocean people are very different from land people. The ocean never stops saying and asking into ears, which don't sleep like eyes.

I'd like to go to New Society Village someday and find out exactly how far I can walk before people stop talking like me.

The way I'm going now is to focus on peace, to create peace. As Sister Corita said, "I don't go to anti-war rallies. I go to peace rallies."

Any merchant who advertises 'Honest Scales' must have been thinking about weighing them.

And I had to get out of hating range.

What does old look like? Sometimes I am wrinkled, sometimes not.

Gods you avoid won't hurt you.

No husband of mine will say, "I could have been a drummer, but I had to think about the wife and kids. You know how it is." Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure.

When you raise girls, you're raising children for strangers.

Compromise to please others is not as good as integrity that annoys others. Rather than be praised without being good, it is better to be slandered without being bad.

Observe people with cool eyes, listen to their words with cool ears. Confront feelings with cool emotions, reflect on principles with a cool mind.

When people are determined, they can overcome fate; when the will is unified, it can mobilize energy. Enlightened people do not even let nature put them in a set mold.

Desires that are just are termed Truth. Without desires, Truth cannot be understood.

When one is not slipshod in small matters, not hypocritical in secret, and not reckless in disappointment, only then is one a true hero.

A moment of kindness can produce a mood of harmony between heaven and earth. Purity of heart can leave a fine example for a hundred generations.

If you fear that people will know if you do something bad, then there is something good in bad. If you are eager for people to know when you do something good, then there is something bad in good.

Virtue is the master of talent, talent is the servant of virtue. Talent without virtue is like a house where there is no master and their servant manages its affairs. How can there be no mischief?

Our body is a small universe; to regulate emotions and feelings is a way of harmonization.

Blessings often give rise to injury, so be careful when things are going your way. Success may be achieved after failure, so don't just give up when you've been disappointed.

If you do not join the polluted, then you are pure; if you reject society in search of purity, that is not purity but fanaticism.

Public behavior is nurtured in private; earthshaking measures come form careful steps.

Don't be too severe in criticizing people's faults; consider how much they can bear. Don't be too lofty in enjoining virtue, so people may be able to follow.

...people of old deemed freedom from greed precious, and this is how they got beyond the world.

When enlightened people are so poor that they cannot help others, if they speak a word to awaken the confused or to resolve a problem, there is also boundless merit in that.

Unexpected hardship refines people; if you can accept it, both mind and body will benefit. If you cannot accept it, on the other hand, both mind and body will be harmed.

In the mind engaged in struggling with hardship, one always finds something delightful. The sorrow of disappointment arises in the complacency of satisfaction.

One of our predecessors said, "Throwing away the inexhaustible treasury of your own home, you go with your bowl from door to door, acting like a beggar"

If you know that whatever is made inevitable breaks down, you needn't seek too hard for achievement. If you know that all living beings inevitably die, you needn't work too hard on health lore.