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

you must not use wood to put out the fire.

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

prophecies do not alter fate, only confirm it.

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

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

Principles have a way of yielding to power.

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

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?

Rain is appealing. I can just stand out there letting the rain beat upon my back.

Fantasy has a dark side to it. It also has a light hemisphere - the power of the human imagination to keep going, to imagine a better tomorrow.

But with the slow menace of a glacier, depression came on. No one had any measure of its progress; no one had any plan for stopping it. Everyone tried to get out of its way.

Night begins to muffle up the day.

The human soul finds its saddest imprisonment when it is helpless in the presence of cruelty, when it cannot right a wrong. It finds its highest freedom when it can secure justice to others.

Just date people you like, then you're guaranteed to have fun.

Relationships are like bubbles – they’re fragile.

If you're in despair, you don't know how to be part of your own life anymore.

Inevitably you're going to be delayed somewhere. Always have a book. Always have a movie. Always have a notebook. And then always have a sense of humour.

Where you see valid achievements or virtue being attacked, it's by someone viewing them as a mirror of their own inadequacy instead of an inspiring beacon for excellence.