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

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.

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.

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

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?

Beauty and power was commonplace to the dragons as mud and manure to a stable boy.

Some things are better 'left' as they are...unresolved but evolving...

Content arises out of certain considerations about form, material, context-and that when that subject matter is sufficiently far away.

We've had the U.N. for almost 60 years, yet we've never actually made a fundamental list of all the big things that we can do in the world, and said, 'Which of them should we do first?'

Every system using data separates humanity into winners and losers.

It's easy to write for God and about God, because what a thrill to remind the church that the Holy Spirit of God is in you. What a rush! What an amazing blessing!

You are the best kind of killer, Cassel Sharpe, the kind that never has blood on his hands. The kind that never has to sicken at the sight of what he's done, or come to like it too much.

I think my brain is much more intelligent than I am...so I tend to trust it.

I like to write early in the morning, like, 5 a.m. If I'm really on my game, I don't have any coffee or stimulants. I'm kind of in a dream state.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable.