To notice people's deceptions yet not reveal it in words, to bear people's insults without showing any change of attitude-there is endless meaning in this, and also endless function.

If those who give are conscious of their own generosity and those who receive feel indebted, they are no longer family but rather strangers doing business.

There is much meaning in the word endure. For example, when dealing with unstable human feelings and uneven pathways in life, without endurance to hold you up, you may fall into a pit in the brush.

Those who have come to an impasse should examine their original intentions; those who have succeeded should note where they are heading.

If a poor house is well kept, or a poor girl well groomed, there is elegance if not beauty. If good people should come upon hard times, why should they immediately give up on themselves?

Human affairs are like a chess game. Only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players.

Valuing unusual conduct is not as good as being careful about ordinary actions.

Attention is the mind's feet; if you do not control your attention strictly, it runs into misleading pathways.

If the mind is illumined, there is clear blue sky in a dark room. If the thoughts are muddled, there are malevolent ghosts in broad daylight.

In dealing with good people one should be magnanimous; in dealing with bad people one should be strict. In dealing with average people one should combine magnanimity and strictness.

Fishing is a pleasure of retirement, yet the angler has the power to let the fish live or die.

I'm inspired by the work of those (and sometimes even the people themselves) who strive to inspire.

My style of writing is to allow the story to unfold on its own. I try not to structure my work too rigidly.

There is a weird phenomenon where technology seems to be getting dumber in some ways as it gets smarter.

Scientific understanding is our joy. Economic and political understanding is our duty.

Stalin’s postwar goals were security for himself, his regime, his country, and his ideology, in precisely that order.

All life passes like a fast flowing river and how strange to see that happiness increases this speed! Yes, a happy life passes faster!

I'm a very un-excitable person. I always take things with a grain of salt, I'm always very even-keeled, and I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I'm a happily married man and I think to get married you have to be optimistic.

Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn

Dissonance cannot be corrected by criticism.