A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.
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Don't stand by the water and long for fish; go home and weave a net
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Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come
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In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone's letter.
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Geng Lei was a famous archer of the state of Wei. One day while he was on an excursion outside the city with the King of Wei, he saw a bird circling in the sky. The King asked him to down the goose with an arrow. He answered: I don't have to use an arrow. I can just make the bird fall down from the sky with my arch. Do you have that marvellous skill? asked the King. Presently they saw the wild goose flying from the east. Geng Ying twanged the string of his bow and indeed the wild goose at once dropped to the ground in front of them. You're really a wonderful archer, said the King with approval. Geng Lei said, This is a wounded wild goose. From its desolate cry and tired flight you can see its wound has not yet healed. When it heard the twang of my bow-string, it thought it was again hit by an arrow and fell from the sky.
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The results that you achieved at the Athens Olympics last year have shown Chinese sports is really getting to the top.
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Just as tall trees are known by their shadows, so are good men known by their enemies
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He always looked forward to the evening drives through the centre of Shanghai, this electric and lurid city, more exciting than any other in the world. As they reached the Bubbling Well Road he pressed his face to the windshield and gazed at the pavements lined with night-clubs and gambling dens, crowded with bar-girls and gangsters and rich beggars with their bodyguards. Crowds of gamblers pushed their way into the jai alai stadiums, blocking the traffic in the Bubbling Well Road. An armoured police van with two Thompson guns mounted in a steel turret above the driver swung in front of the Packard and cleared the pavement. A party of young Chinese women in sequinned dresses tripped over a child's coffin decked with paper flowers. Arms linked together, they lurched against the radiator grille of the Packard and swayed past Jim's window, slapping the windshield with their small hands and screaming obscenities. Nearby, along the windows of the Sun Sun department store in the Nanking Road, a party of young European jews were fighting in and out of the strolling crowds with a gang of older German boys in the swastika armbands of the Graf Zeppelin Club. Chased by the police sirens, they ran through the entrance of the Cathay Theatre, the world's largest cinema, where a crowd of Chinese shopgirls and typists, beggars and pickpockets spilled in the street to watch people arriving for the evening performance. As they stepped from their limousines the women steered their long skirts through the honour guard of fifty hunchbacks in mediaeval costume. Three months earlier, when his parents had taken Jim to the premiere of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, there had been two hundred hunchbacks, recruited by the management of the theatre from every back alley in Shanghai. As always, the spectacle outside the theatre for exceeded anything shown on its screen.
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The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
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I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks so I wondered, what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?
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The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
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With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.
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According to the ancient Chinese proverb, A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step
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If you are planning for a year, sow rice if you are planning for a decade, plant trees if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.
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Those who have free seats at a play hiss first.
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Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, all must be tasted.
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If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.
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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.
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Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
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A book tightly shut is but a block of paper.
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After three days without reading, talk becomes flavorless.
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Never do anything standing that you can do sitting, or anything sitting that you can do lying down.
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Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
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Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
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To attract good fortune, spend a new coin on an old friend, share an old pleasure with a new friend, and lift up the heart of a true friend by writing his name on the wings of a dragon.
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A diamond with a flaw is worth more than a pebble without imperfections.
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Apparently, one in five people in the world are Chinese. And there are five people in my family, so it must be one of them. It's either my mum or my dad. Or my older brother, Colin. Or my younger brother, Ho-Chan-Chu. But I think it's Colin.
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Do not employ handsome servants.
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In a broken nest there are few whole eggs.
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Man is the head of the family, woman the neck that turns the head.
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