ACCUMULATION
Three feet of ice is not frozen in one day.          PROVERB

ACCURACY
Deviate an inch, lose a thousand miles.           PROVERB

ACTION
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.        CHINESE SAYING

Action will remove the doubt that the theory cannot solve.       THEYI HSIEH

It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it, and proceed to translate that belief into action.                 LIN YUTANG

ADVERSITY
A dragon stranded in shallow water furnishes amusement for the shrimps. A tiger out in the plain is insulted by the dogs.        PROVERB

ADVICE
Bitter medicine cures sickness; unpalatable advice benefits conduct.                 HAN FEITZU

AFIRMTIVENESS
Absolute affirmativeness in tone is one good attribute of evangelists and speakers. Those who want to impose their ideas and reasons on other people must assume the airs of total confidence so as to win them over.             LIANG SHIQIU

AFFLICTION
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man  perfected without trials.              PROVERB

AGE
Everybody hopes for longevity, but nobody wants to be old.       LIANG SHIQIU

ALERTNESS
Be alert on danger while in safety.           ZHEN GUAN ZHENG YAO

ALIENATION
Being alienated or treated coldly by somebody is not all that bad, at least I feel relieved to learn that he cannot get close to me either.                 LIANG SHIQIU

ALONE
“Being alone” is something worth taking into consideration. It is the first condition for discovery. If you want to find out the sincerity  of your friend, you have to get a chance to be with him alone. If you want to see the true side of yourself, you have to be alone by yourself. If you want to discover the true face of a place, you also have to travel around all alone.           XU ZHIMO

AMBITION
He who tiptoes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.       LAO TZU

Excessive ambition makes men willing to do the most degrading thing: they climb up by crawling.           LIANG SHIQIU

He who opens his heart to ambition closes it to peace.        CHINESE SAYING

ANGER
The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns yourself more than him.                 CHINESE SAYING

ANIMAL
Mankind differs from the animals only by a little, and most people throw that away.              CONFUCIUS

APPRENTICE
Azure springs from blue, but is bluer still.          PROVERB

APPROVAL
Lean too much upon the approval of people, and it becomes a bed of thorns.                THEYI HSIEH

ART
Art for art’s sake is a philosophy of the well-fed.         CAO YU

The wisdom of art consists in concealing art.          LIN YUTANG

BASIS
With the skin gone, what can the hair adhere to?         PROVERB

BELIEF
As for belief, there are things that are as clear as the sky, yet men prefer to sit under an up-turned barrel.           KO HUNG

BIRTH AND DEATH
At birth we come, at death we go.... bearing nothing.        PROVERB

BLAME
Blame yourself as you would blame others; excuse others as you would excuse yourself.              CHINESE SAYING

BLESSING
Good fortunes never come in pairs; misfortunes never come singly.                 PROVERB

Good fortune lies within bad, bad fortune lurk within good.       PROVERB

BOOKS
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.          CHINESE SAYING

Too much trust in books is worse than having no books.        MENCIUS

Books do not exhaust words; words do not exhaust thoughts.       CHINESE SAYING

He who has books is happy; he who does not need any is happier.                 CHINESE SAYING

BRAGGING
It does not matter if a lion brags about its big size. But it matters if a pig or a sheep brags about its big size.          LU XUN

BROTHER
Own brothers keep careful accounts.            PROVERB

BUDDHISM
The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference, and Heaven and Earth are set apart.        SEEING - TS’AN

BULLYING
The fox borrows the tiger’s terror by walking in the later’s company ---- to bully others by flaunting one’s powerful connections.                PROVERB

BUTTERFLY
Every butterfly is a dead flower flying back to look for her lost life.                 ZHANG AILING

CHANCE
Sometimes people find something by chance after wearing out even the iron shoes while traveling far and wide in search of it.       PROVERB

CHANGE
Only two classes of men never change: The wisest of the wise and the dullest of the dull.             CONFUCIUS

CHARACTER
It is when a man ceases to do the things he has to do, and does the things he likes to do, that the character is revealed.         LIN YUTANG

Some people have good characters, which are useful for others but not for themselves, just like a sun-dial in front of a house, which is to be seen by neighbors and passers-by rather than by the master of the household.             LIANG SHIQIU

CHILDREN
Beat your child once a day. If you do not know why, he does.       CHINESE SAYING

CHINESE
All Chinese are Confucianists when successful, and Taoists when they are failures. The Confucianist in us builds and strives, while the Taoist in us watches and smiles.           LIN YUTANG

CHOICE
From a garbed roof the rolling melon has two choices.        CHINESE SAYING

CLEVERNESS
The clever man spends the second half of his life correcting his ridiculous mistakes, prejudices and erroneous ideas of the first half of his life.                 LIANG SHIQIU

Clever people may be victims of their own cleverness.        PROVERB

COMMON LOT
If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold.(If one of the two interindependent things falls, the other will be exposed to danger.)       MASTER LU’S SPRING AND        AUTUMN ANNALS

COMPENSATIONS
The beautiful bird gets caged.            CHINESE SAYING

CONFUCIANISM
To be fond of learning is to draw close to wisdom. To practice with vigor is to draw close to benevolence. To know the sense of shame is to draw close to courage. He who knows these three things knows how to cultivate his own character. Knowing how to cultivate his own character, he knows how to govern other men, he knows how to govern the world, its states, and its families.       CONFUCIUS    From the Son of Heaven down to the common people, all must regard cultivation of the personal life as the root or foundation. There is never a case in which the root is in disorder and yet the branches are in order.             CONFUCIUS

CONQUERORS
Conquerors are kings while the beaten are bandits.         PROVERB

CONTEMPT
The greatest contempt is silence ----silence without even turning your eyes to look at it.             LU XUN

CONTENTMENT
When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten; when the belt fits, the belly is forgotten; when the heart is right, “for” and  “against” are forgotten. There is no change in what is inside, no following what is outside, when the adjustment to events is conformable. One begins with what is comfortable and never experience what is uncomfortable, when one knows the comfort of forgetting what is comfortable.                CHUANG TZU

Chuang Tzu fished in the Pu River. The king of Chu sent two grandees to present themselves before him and say: “I wish to trouble you with the administration of my state.”   Chuang Tzu held the fishing rod, did not turn his head and said: “I have heard that there is a sacred tortoise in Chu, and that she has been dead for three thousand years. The king keeps her, wrapped in cloth and placed in a box, in the ancestral temple. As regards this tortoise now, would she rather have died and because of that leave behind her bones and beheld in honor? Or would she rather have stayed alive and trailed her tail in the mud?”    The two grandees said: “She would rather have stayed alive and trailed her tail in the mud.”        Chuang Tzu said: “Go away. I will trail my tail in the mud.”       CHUANG TZU

The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desires for things beyond your reach.                 LIN YUTANG

CONVERSATION
A single conversation with a wise man is worth ten years’ study of books.                PROVERB

COWARDS
It is not wise to punish cowards by bringing shame on them; for if they had a sense of shame, they would not have become cowards. Death is the only suitable punishment for them, because they fear death most.                LIANG SHIQIU

If victory comes, I am in the crowds of victors, so I win. If defeat comes, I may not suffer because there are so many defeated. This is the psychology of mass rioters. Their action seems to be fierce, but in reality it is the action of cowards.          LU XUN

Even with ten thousand feet flames of fury, a coward can burn nothing but weak grass.             LU XUN

A brave man angered will draw his sward  and confront the more powerful. A furious coward will draw his sward on the weaker. In a hopeless nation, there must be many heroes who only glower at children. These cowards!            LU XUN

CRITICISM
Don’t use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend’s forehead.                 CHINESE SAYING

DANGER
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind ---covet gains ahead without being aware of danger from behind.       SHUO YUAN (A Collection of  Historical Events & Comments)

DEATH
The living all find death unpleasant; men mourn over it. And yet, what is death, but the unbending of the bow and its return to its case?                  CHUANG TZU

Look upon death as a going home.           PROVERB  DECEIVING

You can deceive your superiors, but you can not deceive your inferiors.                 CHINESE SAYING

DECISION
Failing to make a prompt decision makes one suffer from the indecision.                 SIMA QIAN   DELAY

A long night is fraught with dreams; a long delay means many hitches.                PROVERB

DEMOCRACY
Genuine democracy, the only valid democracy is nourished with the blood of martyrs and with the blood of tyrants.         WEI JINGSHENG

DEMON
Better be a demon in a large temple than a god in a small one.       CHINESE SAYING DEPENDENCE

Sometimes a good crutch is often better than a bad foot.        THEYI HSIEH

DESIRE
A Chi man stole some gold at a market. He was arrested and asked why he stole it in such a crowded place. The thief replied that the sight of the gold filled his mind to the exclusion of the people around.                ZHAN GUO CE

DIFFICULTY
He who regards many things easy will find many difficulties. Therefore the sage regards things difficult, and consequently never has difficulties.                LAO TZU

DIFFERENCE
One who retreats fifty paces mocks one who retreats a hundred in the battlefield, not knowing the little difference of their action.                  MENCIUS

DIFFERENTIATION
If all are asleep, you cannot tell who is blind; if all are silent, you cannot tell who is dumb. Wake them up and ask them to look around; raise questions and ask them to answer, then the blind and the dumb will be exposed.              HAN FEITZU

DILEMMA
Though my left hand defeat the right, who wins?         CHINESE SAYING   DIPLOMACY

All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.         ZHOU ENLAI

DISASTER
When the nest is overturned, not egg stays unbroken. --- in a great disaster no one can escape un scathed.           SHI SHUO XIN YU(New         Accounts of Old Episodes)

DISTANCE
When something is on fire, it is futile to extinguish it by fetching water from the sea far away, although there is plenty of water there. Far waters cannot quench near fires.          HAN FEITZU

DOCTOR
Prolonged illness makes a doctor of a patient.         PROVERB

DOG
A lean dog shames his master.            CHINESE SAYING

DOUBT
To doubt is not a shortcoming. But always doubt and never make up your mind is indeed a shortcoming.           LU XUN

DREAMS
The most painful thing in life is to wake up from a dream and find no way out. Dreamers are fortunate people. If no way out can be seen, the important thing is not to awaken the sleepers.        LU XUN

DRUM
A good drum does not require hard beatings.          CHINESE SAYING

DUTY
The path of duty lies in what is near, and man seeks for it in what is remote.                MENCIUS

DWARF
When with dwarfs, do not talk about pygmies.         PROVERB

EARLY START
Clumsy birds have to start early to reach the woods.        PROVERB

EAST AND WEST
The West can teach the East how to get a living, but the East must eventually be asked to show the West how to live.         THEYI HSIEH

EDUCATION
If you plan for a year, plant a seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If for a hundred years, teach the people. When you sow a seed once, you will reap a single harvest. When you teach the people, you will reap a hundred harvests.             KUAN CHUNG

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.                CHINESE SAYING

EFFORTS
If one were to rely only on those arrows which had grown straight all by themselves - in a hundred generations one would still not get a single arrow. If one were to rely only on pieces of wood growing perfectly round  (for making wheels) - in one thousand generations one still would not have a single wheel.        HAN FEITZU

EGG
O Eggs, never fight with stones!            PROVERB

EMOTIONS
We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression; the heart of a wise man should resemble a mirror, which reflects every object without being sullied by any.            CONFUCIUS

EMPEROR
To attend an emperor is like sleeping with a tiger.         CHINESE SAYING

Even the emperor has straw-sandled relatives.         CHINESE SAYING

EMPTY AND FULL
Ji (a water container) overturns when it becomes full; piggy bank will never be broken when it is empty. So a gentleman would rather not possess than possess, would rather lack than have.        HONG ZICHENG

ENEMY
Predestined enemies will always meet in a narrow alleyway.       PROVERB

ENLIGHTENMENT
Listen to both sides and you will be enlightened, heed only one side and you will be benighted.            PROVERB

ERROR
Even the wise are not always free from error; even a fool occasionally hits on a good idea.             PROVERB

EXCESSIVENESS
A sun at noon is to decline; a full moon is to wane; a full bucket is to overflow.               YI JING

To go beyond is as bad as to fall short.           CONFUCIUS

EXPERIENCE
Experience is a comb which nature gives us when we are bald.                  CHINESE SAYING

He who neglects to drink the spring of experience is apt to die of thirst in the desert of ignorance.            LING PO

EXTREMITY
There is no tree in mountains high and steep, while in valleys low and flat, grass and trees flourish. There is no fish in a rushing current, while the deep pool and still pond are fraught with fish and turtles. So the wise man should learn to avoid going to the extreme.       HONG ZICHENG

EYE AND EAR
What the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve for. When the ear does not listen, the heart escapes sorrow.         PROVERB

FACE
“Losing face” is relative. It is common for a rickshaw boy to sit on the sidewalk, take off his shirt and start to catch lice. But for a rich man’s son-in-law to do this is to lose face. It seems that only the rich is more prone to lose face. Yet, it is not always the case. The rickshaw boy will lose face if he steals a purse, but the profiteering upper class can reap a huge amount of gold and rare curios without losing face.        LU XUN

FAILURE
Some times it is more important to discover what one cannot do than what one can do.              LIN YUTANG

FAME AND VANITY
If any one cares for one hour’s blame or praise so much that, by torturing his spirit and body, he struggles for a name lasting some hundred years after his death, can the halo of glory revive his dried bones, or give him back the joy of living?          YANG CHU

FAMILIARITY
If you step on a stranger’s foot in the marketplace, you apologize at length.... If you step on your older brother’s foot, you give him an affectionate pat.... and if you step on your parent’s foot, you know you are already forgiven. The great politeness is free of formality; perfect conduct, free of concern.          CHUANG TZU

FANCY
To quench one’s thirst by thinking of plums ---- console oneself with false hopes and fancies.            PROVERB

FAULT
The real fault is to have faults and not amend them.        CONFUCIUS

FAVOR
The first time it is a favor, the second time a rule.         CHINESE SAYING

Bestow favors from small to big, otherwise people will forget the benefits; mete out punishments from severe to light, otherwise people will complain about their cruelty.           HONG ZICHENG

FEAST
There is no feast that never breaks up at last.          PROVERB

FEET
He lifts his feet high who puts on boots for the first time.       CHINESE SAYING

FIFTY
I have lived fifty years to know the mistakes of the forty-nine.                  CHINESE SAYING

FINGER
Even the ten fingers cannot be of equal length.         PROVERB

FIRE AND WATER
Fire looks threatening, so few get burned; water looks weak and soft, so many get drowned.             HAN FEITZU

FIREWOOD
Firewood alone will not start a fire.           CHINESE SAYING

FISH
The fish sees the bait not the hook.           CHINESE SAYING

FLAW
One flaw cannot obscure the splendor of the jade.         PROVERB

FLIGHT
The flight is higher, the fall is heavier.           CHINESE SAYING

FLOWER
The red flower cannot be so beautiful without being supported by its green leaves.             PROVERB

FOLLY
Those who realize their folly are not true fools.         CHUANG TZU

FORGETFULNESS
The wise man forgets insults as the ungrateful forgets benefits.                 CHINESE SAYING

FORGIVENESS
To be wronged is nothing unless you continues to remember it.                  CONFUCIUS

Nobody will be able to forgive me but myself.         DING LING

FORTY
When a man is past forty and does not become a crook, he is either feeble-minded or a genius.             LIN YUTANG

FRATRICIDE
Poem of Seven Paces         Boiled beans are taken to make a soup,      Stained lentils utilized for stock.       While stalks beneath the pot are blazing up,     The beans within the pot are shedding tears.     Originally from the same root grown,      For one to cook the other, why such haste?          CAO CHIH

FREQUENCY AND CONSEQUENCE
How can you avoid wetting your shoes when you frequently walk on the riverside.               PROVERB

FRIEND
Have no friend not equal to yourself.           CONFUCIUS

True friends are tasteless as water. False friends mix oil with the honey, ---- of their tongues.             CHINESE SAYING

Better friends visit you than live with you.          CHINESE SAYING

It is difficult to win a friend in a year; it is easy to offend one in an hour.                 CHINESE SAYING

Make friendship with men better than yourself; better none than those like yourself.              CHINESE SAYING

The friendship of officials is as thin as paper.         CHINESE SAYING

If you drink with a friend, a thousand cups of wine are too few; if you argue with a man, half a sentence is too much.        PROVERB

If the water is too clear, there is no fish; if a man is too cautious, he will have no friends.             PROVERB

FRONT AND REAR
Better be the mouth of a chicken than the tail of an ox.        ZHAN GUO CE

FUTILITY
Felling a tree to catch the blackbird.           PROVERB

Carrying faggots to put out a fire.            PROVERB

Asking a blind man the road.            PROVERB

Fish for the moon in the water.            PROVERB

Draw water with a bamboo basket.           PROVERB

Scratch an itch from outside one’s boot.          PROVERB

FUTURE
I naturally believe there will be a future, but I do not waste my time imagining its radiant beauty.... It seems to me that we ought to think first about the present. Even if the present is desperately dark, I do not wish to leave it. Will tomorrow be free from darkness? We will talk about that tomorrow.          LU XUN

GENERAL
An army of one thousand is easy to find, but it is hard to find a general.                 PROVERB

GENERATION         One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.        PROVERB

GENEROSITY
Mount Tai does not repel little dirt, so it has grown high; big rivers and seas do not nitpick narrow streams, so they have become deep; rulers do not drive back the masses, so they have become virtuous.                 LI SI

GINGER
The older ginger becomes, the more pungent is its flavor.       PROVERB

GIVING
The sage does not care to hoard. The more he uses for the benefits of others, the more he possesses himself. The more he gives to his fellowmen, the more he has of his own.         LAO TZU

A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gave you roses.                 CHINESE SAYING

GLORY AND DISHONOR
Rather be a shattered vessel of jade than an unbroken piece of pottery.                 PROVERB

GOLD
Pure gold fears no fire.             PROVERB

GOLDEN RULE
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you But better not expect others to do unto you what you would do unto them.     CHEN CHIJU

GOOD AND BAD
We think of nothing bad in something we are seeking; and we think of nothing good in it once we have got it.          LIANG SHIQIU

GOOD AND EVIL
Who does evil and is afraid of letting it be known has still a seed of good in his evil; who does good and is anxious to have it known has still a root of evil in his good.           HONG ZICHENG

GOODNESS AND DUTY
Confucius visited Lao Tzu and began talking about goodness and duty. “Chaff from the winnower’s fan,” said Lao Tzu, “can so blear out eyes that we do not know if we are looking north, south, east, or west; at heaven or at earth. One gnat or mosquito can be more than enough to keep us awake a whole night. All this talk of goodness and duty, these pin-pricks, unnerve and irritate the hearer; nothing, indeed, could be more destructive of his inner tranquillity...... The swan does not need a daily bath in order to remain white; the crow does not need a daily inkling in order to remain black....When the pool dries up, fish makes room for fish upon the dry land, they moisten one another with damp breath, spray foam from their jaws. But how much better are they off when they can forget one another, in the freedom of river or lake!”        CHUANG TZU

GOVERNMENT
The true art of governing is, if possible, to do nothing.        LAO TZU

Of the best rulers, the people only know that they exist; the next best they love and praise; the next best they fear; and the next they revile. When they do not command the people’s faith, some sill lose faith in them. And then they resort to oaths! But of the best when their task is accomplished and their work done, the people all remark, “We have done it ourselves.”            LAO TZU

The ruler may be considered a boat, while people water. The water can carry the boat, and can upset it.           ZHEN GUAN ZHENG YAO

When his horse is uneasy harnessed to a carriage, a gentleman is not comfortable in it. When the common people are uneasy under a government, a gentleman is not comfortable in his post....It is traditionally said that the ruler is like a boat and the common people are like the water. Water supports the boat but may also upset it.               XUN ZI

GREATNESS
The loftiest towers rise from the ground.          PROVERB

The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart.        MENCIUS

GRIEF
There is no grief so great as that for a dead heart.         PROVERB

GROWTH
A tree that can fill span of a man’s arms grows from a downy tip; a terrace nine stories high rises from handfuls of earth; a journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath one’s feet.        LAO TZU

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

HARD TIMES
We forget even incense in easy times.... Come hard times we embrace the Buddha’s feet.              PROVERB

HARMONY
Harmony would lose its attractiveness if it did not have a background of discord.              THEYI HSIEH

HARVEST
Other people’s harvests are always the best harvests, but one’s own children are always the best children.          CHINESE SAYING

HASTE
More haste, less speed.             CONFUCIUS

HEART
To know oneself is to know others, for heart can understand heart.                 CHINESE SAYING

If your heart did not break now and then, Spring Moon, how would you know it is there? Hearts break, then mend and break and mend again in a cycle without beginning, without end. As surely as dawn sows the evening, twilight sows the morn.          BETTE BAO LORD

HEAVEN
Heaven’s net is indeed vast. Though its meshes are wide, it misses nothing.                LAO TZU

HIGHBROW
Highbrow songs find few singers.           PROVERB

HOME
The strength of a nation is based on the integrity of its homes.       CONFUCIUS

HOME-COMING
Though a tree grows a thousand feet high, the leaves must fall down and return to its roots.             PROVERB

HOPE
It is difficult to say whether there is such a thing as hope or not. Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.        LU XUN

When a mountain is piled up, the first basket of earth is the beginning of the end....and when one travels, the first step is the beginning of the arrival.              SENG CHAO

HUMILITY
The reason why rivers and seas receive the homage of a hundred mountain streams is that they keep below them. Thus they are able to reign over all the mountain streams. So the sage, wishing to be above men, puts himself behind them. Thus though his place be above them they do not feel his weight; though his place be before them, they do not think it an injury.         LAO TZU

Use your light, but dim your brightness.          LAO TZU

IDLENESS
An idle mind makes the hair grow; an idle body makes the nail grow.                 CHINESE SAYING

IGNORANCE
Ignorance is the night of the mind, a night without moon or star.                  CONFUCIUS

IMMACULATENESS
The immaculate stains easily.            PROVERB

INACTION
Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will become clear of itself. Who is there that can secure a state of absolute repose? But let time go on, and the state of repose will gradually arise.            LAO TZU

INATTENTION
When a neighbor is in your fruit garden, inattention is the truest politeness.                CHINESE SAYING

INCLUSIVENESS
Birds settle down in the forest which is deep. Fish swim in the water which is spacy.              ZHEN GUAN ZHENG YAO

INCOMPATIBILITY
A square tenon won’t fit for a round mortise.          PROVERB

INCONTENTMENT
It is always the other mountain that looks higher.         PROVERB

INEFFECTUALITY
Try to stop water from boiling by scooping it up and pouring it back.                 PROVERB

INNOCENCE
The innocent people we talk about are usually those hermits hiding in the deserts to avoid life’s seduction. The innocent people tempered in experience are those who see beautiful flowers but never pluck them, who see pretty women but never think of sleeping with them.               LIANG YUCHUN

INTENTION
Intentionally plant flowers, and the flowers die away; unwittingly transplant willows, and the willows become shady.       PROVERB

JOURNEY
Ninety miles is only half of a hundred ---- the going is toughest towards the end of a journey.            PROVERB

JUDGMENT
He who is a good judge of men corrects what he hears by what he sees; he who is not a good judge of men corrupts what he sees by what he hears.               CHINESE SAYING

Judge not the horse by his saddle.            CHINESE SAYING

JUSTIFICATION
Although bedbugs are unpleasant when they suck your blood, at least they bite you without a word, which is quite straightforward and frank. Mosquitoes are different, of course, their method of piercing the skin may be considered fairly thoroughgoing; but before biting, they insist on making a long speech, which is irritating. If they are expounding on the reasons that make it right for them to feed on human blood, that is even more irritating. I am glad I do not know their language.         LU XUN

KNOWLEDGE
While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve spirits?.... While you do not know life, how can you know about death?                 CONFUCIUS    Inaction is the master of all knowledge.... Be empty: that is all. The perfect man’s use of his mind is like a mirror. He does not anticipate (events), nor does he go counter to them. He responds, but he does not retain. Thus he is able to master things and not be injured by them.                CHUANG TZU

The essence of knowlege is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.             CONFUCIUS

Know the enemy; know yourself, and you will never be defeated in war.                SUN TZU

To know yet to think that one does not know is best. Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.         LAO TZU

The power of knowledge can as easily bring progress in good as progress in evil.               WU CHIH-HUI   KISS            A kiss is a piece of sugar shared forever.          YAN LI

LATENESS
It is too late to pull the rein when the horse has gained the brink of the precipice; the time for plugging the leak is past when the boat is in midstream.              PROVERB

LAW
Going to law is to lose a cow for the sake of a cat.         CHINESE SAYING

A law can not be enforced if a huge crowd violate it.        PROVERB

LEADER
Because of not daring to be ahead of the world, one becomes the leader of the world.              LAO TZU

A people only become unmanageable when one tries to lead them with a violent love.... But if one approaches them with trust and takes them by the hand, if one lures them forward with riches and drives them from behind with just punishment.... there will not be a single one who will not adapt himself to the ruler.         MO TZU

LEAKAGE
Great ships fear small leakage.            CHINESE SAYING

LEARNING
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without leaning is perilous.               CONFUCIUS

Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.                  PROVERB

Give  a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.            CHINESE SAYING

We must train not only the head, but the heart and hand as well.                  MME CHIANG KAI-SHEK LEISURE

Leisure in time is like unoccupied floor space in a room.       SHU PAIHSIANG

Only those who take leisurely what the people of the world are busy about can be busy about what the people of the world take leisurely.                 CHANG CHAO

Life is long, but the busy man always feels time is pressed. Universe is spacious, but the petty man always cramps himself in a narrow circle. The flowers, the moon, the snow provide for leisurely entertainment, but the restless man always regards them as superfluous and useless.              HONG ZICHENG

LIFE
Man’s life is like candle in the wind, and frost on the files.       PROVERB

LIFE’S MEANING
Life has no meaning in the first place. Whatever meaning you give to it, it becomes meaningful. It is better for you to spend your life doing something meaningful than pondering over life’s meaning all day long.               HU SHIH

LIMITATION
There are three principles of limitation: there are things which cannot be accomplished with wisdom; there are things which cannot be lifted with strength; there are enemies which cannot be defeated by the strong.             HAN FEITZU

LOSS
On the one hand, loss implies gain; on the other hand, gain implies loss.                LAO TZU

An Immortal said: “In playing chess, there is no infallible way of winning, but there is an infallible way of not losing.” He was asked what this infallible way could be, and replied: “It is not to play chess.”                FENG YOULAN

The loss overweighs the gain when one tries to kill the hen to get the eggs.                PROVERB

LOVE
You love me, I love you.       Love is like fire.          Sculpture you and me out of clay,      Break them up and put them together.     Resculpture you and me.        I am your clay,          You are my clay.         In life we share a single quilt,       In death we share one coffin.            KUAN TAO SHENG

With beauty gone, love declines.            SIMA QIAN

LUST
Lust for fame and fortune is like an intoxication. While a man is intoxicated, he does not realize it. It is only after it is all over that he realizes that everything is like an illusion. If men could realize this all the time, there would be much less trouble on earth, and there would be much happier people too.           LI JU-CHEN

LYING
Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.        LIN YUTANG

MAGISTRATE
An honest magistrate has lean clerks; a powerful god has fat priests.                 CHINESE SAYING

MAN
If Heaven creates a man, there must be some use for him.       PROVERB

A man cannot be known by his looks, nor can the sea be measured with a bushel basket.             PROVERB

MARRIAGE
Marriage is like a besieged fortress; people inside want to get out, while people outside want to get in.           QIAN ZHONGSHU

Getting married is like a frog jumping into the well ---- it gets water, but it can hardly get out of the well.            CHINESE SAYING

Married couples who love each other tell each other a thousand things without talking.             CHINESE SAYING

MASK
Man’s face is not as good as a paper mask! Look at the red, black, white, blue, laughing, sad, and angry masks, no matter how you praise them or detest them, they never change.... What about man’s face? .... when you praise a man, he appears as if he is unwilling to accept it although he is very happy; when you criticize him, he looks as if he has the courage to take the criticism although he is quite annoyed. Man’s face is unreliable! We’d better learn from the mask, but never wear it.             XU DISHAN

MEANS
If the wrong man uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way.               CHINESE SAYING

MEDICINE
To take no medicine is as good as middling doctor.        CHINESE SAYING

Medicine cures curable diseases.            CHINESE SAYING

MEMORY
The worst pen (or the palest ink) is better than the best memory.                  PROVERB

MEND
Get the coffin ready.... watch the man mend.          CHINESE SAYING

MIND
To have a peace of mind not quite perfect is to deepen the awareness of peace; to enjoy pleasure not quite to the limit is to prolong the flavors of those pleasure.            CHINESE SAYING

MISFORTUNE
Disease enter by the mouth, misfortunes come from it.        PROVERB

MISTAKE
A man who has committed a mistake and does not correct it is committing a second mistake.             CONFUCIUS

MODEL
Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.                MENCIUS

MODERATION
Flowers should be seen in half bloom; wine should be drunk moderately. This is the most enjoyable stage. Flowers in full bloom, and men dead drunk become unpleasant scenes.         HONG ZICHENG

MONEY
Money comes like earth scooped up with a needle; it goes like sand washed away by water.             CHINESE SAYING

MOON
The ancients see not the present moon, but the present moon shone on the ancients.               PROVERB

MOUNTAIN
There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.               CHINESE SAYING

MOUNTAIN AND MOUND
The ancients say, “People never stumble over a mountain, but stumble and fall over a mound.” The mountain is big, so people are cautious, while the mound is small, so people lower their guard.       HAN FEITZU

MUDDLEHEADEDNESS
Plug  one’s ears while stealing a bell. ---- To be worried that people may hear the sound is within reason, but to fear that he himself should hear it only shows his muddleheadedness.        MASTER LU’S SPRING AND AUTUMN ANNALS

The man is muddleheaded who cuts a mark on the boatside to indicate where his sword has slipped off into the water and tries to recover it by that mark ---- take measures without regard to changes in circumstances.              MASTER LU’S SPRING AND  AUTUMN ANNALS

It is hard to be clever, so is to be muddleheaded; it is harder to turn a clever man into a muddleheaded one.           ZHENG BANQIAO

MULTITUDE
To act without clear understanding, to form habits without investigation, to follow a path all one’s life without knowing where it really leads ---- such is the behavior of the multitude.         MENCIUS

NATURE’S DELIGHT
Fish swimming in the water forget the water, birds riding the wind are unconscious of the wind. If you realize this, you can be above worldly considerations and enjoy Nature’s delight.        HONG ZICHENG

NAIVETÉ
The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart.        MENCIUS

NEEDLE
No needle is sharp at both ends.            PROVERB

NEGLIGENCE AND DISASTER
One ant-hole may cause the collapse of a thousand-mile dike. Little smoke from the crevices in a chimney may burn down a hundred yard building.              HAN FEITZU

A carbuncle neglected becomes the bane of your life.        PROVERB

NEIGHBOR
Better good neighbor that are near you than relatives far away.                 PROVERB

Spend one thousand pieces of gold buying a house; spend ten thousand pieces of gold buying a neighborhood.          CHINESE SAYING

NOTHING
Nothing matters to a man who says nothing matters.        LIN YUTANG

OFFICIALS
Those who were officials in former regimes wish to restore the ancient culture; those who are officials now wish to maintain the status quo; and those who are not yet officials cry for reform.        LU XUN

The foundation of the government of a nation must be built upon the rights of the people, but the administration must be entrusted to experts. We must not look upon those experts as stately and grand presidents and ministers, but simply as our chauffeurs, as guards at the gate, as cooks, physicians, carpenters or tailors.                 SUN YAT-SEN

OLD AGE          SELF-MOCKERY AT THE PLANTING OF TREES   At seventy? Still planting trees?       Don’t laugh:          We all die, sooner or later.         But who knows when?             YUAN MEI   Feeling in disposed towards the evening    I drove up the ancient plains,       The setting sun is unspeakably beautiful,      Only it is approaching nightfall.            LI SHANGYIN

ONE
One flea can not raise a coverlet.            CHINESE SAYING

One tree won’t make a forest.            PROVERB

No matter how stout.... one beam cannot support a house.       CHINESE SAYING

OUTSIDER
Those who play the game do not see as clearly as those who watch.                 PROVERB

OVERACTION
Try to help the crop shoots grow quickly by pulling them upward is not only of no help, it is actually harmful.         MENCIUS

PAIN
We have the feeling of pain. On one hand, it makes us suffer a lot. On the other hand, it help us defend ourselves. If we did not feel pain, we would have bled to death after being stabbed from behind without any feeling and without understanding why we fell.       LU XUN

PAIR
You cannot clap with one hand only.           PROVERB

PAPER
Paper cannot wrap up fire.              PROVERB

PARADOX
The  south has a limit and no limit. The sun is declining when it is at high noon. A creature is dying when it is born.         HUI SHI

 PARDON
Never pardon others, and never ask to be pardoned.        LU XUN

PART AND WHOLE
Pull one hair and the whole body is affected.          PROVERB

PAST/PRESENT/FUTURE
If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.               CONFUCIUS

Everything in the past died yesterday; everything in the future was born today.              CHINESE SAYING

PATIENCE
Patience, and the mulberry leaf can become a silk gown. Patience, and the iron bar can be ground down into a needle.        PROVERB

Those who prostrate for long will fly high; those who blossom early will wither soon. Knowing this one can overcome the feeling of real talents being stifled and get rid of restlessness and impatience.                HONG ZICHENG

PATRIOTISM
When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish.       LAO TZU

What is patriotism but the love of the good things we ate in our childhood?                 LIN YUTANG

PEACE OF MIND
Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst.               LIN YUTANG

PERFECTION
There is no gold without dross; nor is there man without shortcomings.                PROVERB

Perfect happiness is the absence of happiness; perfect glory is the absence of glory.               CHUANG TZU

PERSEVERANCE
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.                 CONFUCIUS

A tree can be felled with a rope by persistent sawing; dripping water wears through rock ---- an achiever should know that constant efforts lead to success.      Where water flows, a channel is found; when a melon is ripe it falls off its stem ---- an achiever should know that when conditions are ripe, success will come.            HONG ZICHENG

PERSPECTIVE
How can one grasp the dimensions for a spacious house from the perspective of a person sitting in a well?           HUI LIN

PERSPIRATION
If we perspire more in times of peace, we should bleed less in times of war.                CHIANG KAI-SHEK

PICKINESS
To look for a bone in an egg.            PROVERB

PILOT
Too many pilots wreck the ship.            CHINESE SAYING

POLITICS
Politics is war without bloodshed; war is politics with bloodshed.                 MAO ZEDONG

POSITION
The higher position you stay in, the colder you feel.        PROVERB

POWER
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.         MAO  ZEDONG

PRAGMATISM
Black cat, white cat, as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat.                  DENG XIAOPING

PRECARIOUSNESS
As precarious as a pile of eggs.            PROVERB

A hundredweight hangs by a hair.  PROVERB

PREPARATION

Do not dig a well until you are thirsty.           PROVERB

PRESENT
One person dies at ten, another at a hundred. Perfect saints die, and so do dangerous fools.... Once dead, they are molding bones. As molding bones, they are equal. Who can tell the difference between them? Let us therefore grasp life’s moment - what is the point worrying about the time after death?         YANG TZU

PRESIDENCY
The U.S. brags about its political system, but the president says one thing during the election, something else when he takes office, something else a midterm and something else when he leaves.                 DENG XIAOPING

PRETENSION
When you talk with famous scholars, the best thing is to pretend that occasionally you do not quite understand them. If you understand too little, you will be despised; if you understand too much, you will be disliked; if you just fail occasionally to understand them, you will suit each other very well.         LU XUN

PRETEXT
Wishing to criminate, no difficulty will be met in finding a pretext.                 PROVERB

PROCRUSTEAN MANNER
To cut the feet to fit the shoes.            PROVERB

PROGRESS
The history of mankind’s battle forward through bloodshed is like the formation of coal, where a great deal of wood is needed to produce a small amount of coal.             WEN YIDUO

PROMINENCE
Storms destroy the finest trees.            PROVERB

The protruding rafter is to be worn out first.          PROVERB

PUBLIC OPINION
Public clamor can confound right and wrong.         PROVERB

It is difficult to cater for all tastes.           PROVERB

PUNISHMENT
If people feel that there is a chance of escaping without being caught, they will never stop stealing gold even though there is the punishment of tearing a person asunder by five carts. If they know they cannot avoid capital punishment, they will not take a kingdom even though they have the chance.            HAN FEITZU

PURITY           A LIMESTONE SONG        It was digging, chiseling, cutting        That led me into the world.        What can heating, burning, boiling      Do to hurt me, now?         Reduce me to dust, to powder,       I am not afraid          So long as I remain stainless and pure.           YU QIAN

READING
Reading books in one’s youth is like looking at the moon through a crevice; reading books in one’s middle age is like looking at the moon in one’s courtyard; and reading books in old age is like looking at the moon on an open terrace. This is because the depth of benefits of reading varies in proportion to the depth of one’s own experience.               CHANG CHAO

The wise man reads both books and life itself.         LIN YUTANG

REALITY
I do not know if I was a man dreaming that I was a butterfly, or if I am a butterfly dreaming I am a man.           CHUANG TZU

RECOMMENDATION
When recommending outsiders for something important, don’t avoid recommending your personal enemies. When recommending relatives, don’t evade recommending your own sons.                  HAN FEITZU

RECOMPENSATION
Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.                CONFUCIUS

REFORM AND REFORMERS
An absolutely brainless man might find some nourishment in a dunghill; a brainy man would not pay any attention to the dunghill in the first place. But it takes a half-brainy, half-brainless clod like myself to come up with the idea of improving and preserving the dunghill. Such a man goes over and preaches at the flies that have gathered atop the turds, saying: “Hey, come on! Let’s keep this place in better shape!”            LAO SHE
 

REGRETS
Always repenting of wrongs done      Will never bring my heart to rest.            CHI KANG

RELATIVITY
All is palatable to him who is hungry; nothing is ugly to him who loves.                 PROVERB

Enough feather may sink a ship.            PROVERB

A starved camel is larger than a live horse.          CAO XUEQIN

RELIEF AND CONSEQUENCE
Do not drink poison to quench thirst ---- do not seek temporary relief regardless of the consequences.          PROVERB

RELIGION
A maker of idols is never an idolater.            CHINESE SAYING

There are religions numerous enough to make us hate each other but not enough to make us love each other.          LIANG SHIQIU

REMEDY
Heng He (a man of letter) says: “ When carving, one should carve big nose and small eyes. You can make big nose smaller and small eyes bigger, but you cannot do vice versa.” It is the same doing business. Those will rarely fail who have remedy in their mind for the unexpected.              HAN FEITZU

REPAIR
Do not tear down the east wall to repair the west.         PROVERB

RESPECT
Respect yourself, and others will respect you.         CONFUCIUS

To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not to respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets.           MENCIUS

REVOLUTION
As long as there shall be stones, the seeds of fire will not die.       LU XUN

Revolution, counterrevolution, nonrevolution. Revolutionaries are massacred by counterrevolutionaries.  Counterrevolutionaries are massacred by revolutionaries.  Nonrevolutionaries are sometimes taken as revolutionaries, and then they are massacred by counterrevolutionaries, or again they are taken for counterrevolutionaries, and then they are massacred by revolutionaries....        Revolution. To revolutionize; to revolutionize the revolution of revolution; to rev....              LU XUN

Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly, and modestly.                 MAO ZEDONG

RICH AND POOR
Though a poor man should live in the midst of a noisy market, no one will ask about him; though a rich man should bury himself among the mountains, his relations will come to him from a distance.                 PROVERB

RIGHTEOUSNESS
If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.        PROVERB

RISK
One cannot afford to give up eating for fear of choking ----one cannot refrain from doing something for fear of a slight risk.       PROVERB

RIVALRY
Human life is as fleeting as flashing sparks of flints, still people enter into rivalry with each other for everything ---- what a short time! Human world is as small as a snail’s feeler, yet people fight in it to see who is stronger ---- what a little universe!        HONG ZICHENG

The road of rivalry is narrow, if you go back one step, the road will become one step wider; the strong flavor won’t last long, if you make it a little bit lighter, it will last a little bit longer.        HONG ZICHENG

ROAD
What is road? It is trampled out of the place where has been no road, but only thistles and thorns.             LU XUN

SATIRE
The essence of satire is truthfulness. It need not be something that has happened, but it must be something that happens.        LU XUN

SECRECY
Men’s whispers sound like thunder  in Heaven’s ears; their secret thoughts flash like lightning before Heaven’s eyes.        CHINESE SAYING

A chicken is hatched even from a well-sealed thing as an egg.       CHINESE SAYING

SEEING
The night has given me dark eyes,      But I use them to look for light.            GU CHENG

SELF-APPRAISAL
He who knows others is clever, but he who knows himself is enlightened.                LAO TZU

SELF-BOAST
The melon seller declares his melons the sweetest.         CHINESE SAYING

SELF-CONTRADICTION
Set your own spear against your own shield ---- refute someone with his own argument.             PROVERB

SELF-DISCIPLINE
He who conquers others is strong. He who conquers himself is mighty.                 LAO TZU

SELF-KNOWLEDGE        The eye cannot see its lashes.            PROVERB

SELF-PRESERVATION
To protect myself from the rear, I have to stand slantwise.       LU XUN

SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
To trust one’s own righteousness is like seeking shelter under one’s own shadow. --- We may stoop to the ground, and the lower we bend, the shadow is beneath us still. But if we flee to the shadow of a great rock, or a wide-spreading tree, then we find shelter from the noon-day sun.             CHINESE SAYING   SHADOW           When the tree falls, the shadow flies.           CHINESE SAYING

SHEEP
Some people are both timid sheep and ferocious beasts. They appear sheepish when encountering with more ferocious beasts, and they become ferocious when encountering with sheep weaker than them.                 LU XUN

SLANDER
Slander cannot destroy an honest man.... When the flood recedes the rock emerges.              CHINESE SAYING

Mean persons slandering gentlemen are just like little clouds blocking the sun light---- it won’t take long for the sun to shine again; flatterers fawning on people are like the wind coming from door cracks ---- it does harm to human bodies without letting people know.                HONG ZICHENG

SMILE
.... the foolish smile of the disappointed; the flattering smile of the servant cursed by the master; the grim smile of the arrogant officials towards their poor relatives; the hollow smile of the spinster at others’ wedding; the bitter smile of those who depart from each other for ever ---- all of these smiles are created by “Nature” which puts us in an awkward situation and makes us acknowledge failure. They are dazzling flags of surrender in the fortress of our hearts.               LIANG YUCHUN

SNAKE
Even in a bamboo tube snakes try to wriggle.         CHINESE SAYING

SOCIETY
We should not expect people to be good, but should make it impossible for them to be bad.             LIN YUTANG

SORROW
Sorrow is the child of too much joy.           PROVERB

There is no way to banish this feeling. As it leaves the eyebrows, it enters the heart.             LI QINGZHAO

SPEECH
Once you have spoken, even the swiftest horses cannot retract your words.               PROVERB

SPENT FORCE
An arrow at the end of its journey can not even pierce through a piece of cloth.              PROVERB

SPOILING
One rat dropping spoils a pot of rice.           CHINESE SAYING

SPRING
Nothing is left of Spring but fragrant dust.          LI  QINGZHAO

STAR
Lights of a thousand stars do not make one moon.         CHINESE SAYING

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS
Sometimes a chi (foot) may prove short and a cun (inch) may prove long. ---Everyone has his strength and weakness.         PROVERB

STRATEGY
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as the night, and when you move, all like a thunderbolt.            SUN TZU

STUPIDITY
The stupid is happy.... the happy is not always stupid.        CHINESE SAYING

When a finger points at the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger.                 CHINESE SAYING

SUCCESS
From the Taoist point of view, an educated man is one who believes he has not succeeded when he has, but is not sure he has failed when he fails.               LIN YUTANG

There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.               CHINESE SAYING

SUPERIOR AND INFERIOR
What the superior man seeks is in himself. What the inferior man seeks in others.               CONFUCIUS

SUSPICION
Avoid  suspicion: when you are walking through your neighbor’s melon path, don’t put on your shoe; when you are walking under your neighbor’s plum tree, don’t adjust your cap.       PROVERB

TAOISM
The Tao (Way) that can be told of is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name.  The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth;    The Named is the mother of all things.  Therefore let there always be nonbeing, so we may see their subtlety,  And let there always be being, so we may see their outcome.  The two are the same, But after they are produced, they have different names.  Deeper and more profound, The door of all subtleties!             LAO TZU

We look at it (Tao) and do not see it;      Its name is The Invisible. We listen to it and do not hear it; Its name is The Inaudible.  We touch it and do not find it;      Its name is The Subtle (formless).           LAO TZU

Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there is nothing left undone. Reversion is the action of Tao. Weakness is the function of Tao.   All things in the world come form being.     And being comes from nonbeing.            LAO TZU

Act non-action; undertake no undertaking; taste the tasteless.       LAO TZU

Banish wisdom, throw away knowledge, and the people will benefit a hundredfold! Banish humility, throw away righteousness, and the people will become conscientious and full of love! Banish skill, throw away profit, the thieves and robbers will disappear!       LAO TZU

The best man is like water. Water is good; it benefits all things and does not compete with them. It dwells in lowly places that all disdain. This is why it is so near Tao.           LAO TZU

Abandon learning and there will be  no sorrow.         LAO TZU

In the government of the sage, he keeps their hearts vacuous, fills their bellies, weakens their ambitions, and strengthens their bones, he always causes his people to be without knowledge (cunning) or desire, and the crafty to be afraid to act.         LAO TZU

To yield is to be preserved whole.      To be bent is to become straight.       To be empty is to be full.        To be worn out is to be renewed.       To have little is to possess.        To have plenty is to be perplexed.           LAO TZU

The sage never strives himself for the great, and thereby the great is achieved.               LAO TZU

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world. Non-being penetrates that in which there is no space. Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.         LAO TZU
 

Soft tongue stays.... hard teeth fall.           CHINESE SAYING

The more laws and order are prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.               LAO TZU

All men know the utility of useful things; but they do not know the utility of futility.              CHUANG TZU
 

We pierce doors and windows to make a house; and  it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends.... We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; but it is on the space where there is nothing that the utility of the wheel depends. We turn clay to make a vessel; but it is on the space where there is nothing that utility of the vessel depends. Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not.              LAO TZU

When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, there arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, there arises the recognition of evil.          LAO TZU

When your work is done and fame has been achieved, then retire into the background; for this is the way of Heaven.        LAO TZU

TEACHING
Teachers open the door, you enter by yourself.         PROVERB

TEARS
Those who shed tears most are girls in love or love-sick young men. Their life is brimming with youthful vigor, is most colorful, and most worthy. When you grow old, your vitality wears away, your spring of tears gets dry.... With tears gone, people’s hearts become numb and cold, just as what Poet Su Dongpo says, “One sheds no tears when getting used to seeing life and death”. By then the shadow of the grave will shroud your declining years. Tears are the affirmation of life. Whenever I see people shed tears, whether they cry because of the disappointment in love or because of the loss of relatives, I feel that life is worth living. Tears are really sweet dews of life.             LIANG YUCHUN

THIEF
A thief is a mean man, but in cleverness surpasses the superior man.                PROVERB

TIME
An inch of time if an inch of gold, but an inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time.               PROVERB

The emperor is rich but he cannot buy an extra year.        CHINESE SAYING

Who is moving in the distance?      It is the clock’s pendulum,      Hired by the god of death       To measure life.               GU CHENG

TOLERANCE
Be tolerant to others and you are tolerated.          PROVERB

Tolerance is more important than liberty.          HU SHIH

TONGUE
The tongue like a sharp knife.... kills without drawing blood.       CHINESE SAYING

TRAGEDY
Tragedy displays things valuable in human life by destroying them, while comedy displays things valueless in human life by tearing them up.                LU XUN

TRAVEL
A good traveler is one who does not know where he is going to, and a perfect traveler does not know where he came from.        LIN YUTANG

TREATMENT OF PEOPLE
Do not do to others what you would not wish done to yourself.                  CONFUCIUS

TRIVIALITY
A single leaf over an eye shuts out the view Mount Tai.---Have one’s view of the important overshadowed by the trivial.       XIAO LIN (A Collection of Jokes)

TRUTH
Absolute truth is indestructible. Being indestructible, it is eternal. Being eternal, it is self-existent. Being self-existent, it is infinite. Being infinite, it is vast and deep. Being vast and deep, it is transcendental and intelligent.             CONFUCIUS

It is man that makes truth great, not truth that makes man great.                 CONFUCIUS

Those who know truth are not equal to those who love truth.       CONFUCIUS

The knowledge that mankind needs is not the way or principle which has an absolute existence, but the particular truths for here and now and for particular individuals. Absolute truth is imaginary, abstract, vague, without evidence, and cannot be demonstrated.                 HU SHIH

Those who seek the truth by means of intellect and learning only get further and further away from it. Not until your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone will you be on the right road to the Gate.        HUANG PO

TRUST
Trust only him who doubts.             LU XUN

TWICE
Once, an event; twice a precedent.           CHINESE SAYING

TYRANNY
The most horrible thing is not a government that stages public executions, but a government that secretly disposes of its victims.                 LU XUN

UNDERSTANDING
The stupid do not even understand something that happened long ago, the wise understand it before it develops.         SHANG YANG

UNHAPPINESS
The three great American vices seem to be efficiency, punctuality and the desire for achievement and success. They are the things that make the Americans so unhappy and so nervous.       LIN YUTANG

UNREQUITED LOVE
Shedding petals, the waterside flower pines for love, while the heartless brook babbles on.             PROVERB

VAINGLORY
Vainglory is a sign of self-abasement rather than a sign of pride. A vain man likes to boast of what he had and of his connections with VIPs, etc. This proves nothing but that he does not deserve the honor. If he does not mention, none of his friends will know. A real proud man deems it unworthy to brag, for he believes that even the greatest honor is inadequate to glorify his accomplishments. I regard the following as a maxim: He who feels pride should conceal his vainglory.            LIANG SHIQIU

VANITY
A full bottle will not shake; a half empty one will.         PROVERB

VENTURE          How can a person catch tiger’s cubs without entering the tiger’s liar? (Nothing venture, nothing gain.)           SHI BA SHI LUE (Eighteen Histories)

VICTORY
When men are subdued by force, it is only for a while for their hearts are not won, only their strength gives out. When men are subdued by moral conduct their hearts are glad with, and their submission is sincere.               MENCIUS

VIRTUE
Virtue in a rich person is the ability to give, in a poor man it is the refusal to beg, in a man of high position it is a humble attitude toward fellowmen, and in a man of low position it is the ability to see through life.              CHINESE SAYING

When a man’s knowledge is sufficient to attain, and his virtue is not sufficient to enable him to hold, whatever he may have gained, he will lose again.              CONFUCIUS

VISION
Do not look at the sky through a bamboo tube and measure the sea with an oyster shell.              PROVERB

Look at one spot on a leopard through a bamboo tube and you can visualize the whole animal.            PROVERB

WAR
There can never be too much deception in warfare.        SUN TZU

Rapidity is the essence of war.            SUN TZU

War can be abolished only through war; and in order to get rid of the gun, it is necessary to take up the gun.          MAO ZEDONG

Place your army in deadly peril, and it will survive; plunge it into desperate straights, and it will come off in safety.         SUN TZU

WARNING
Blame not the speaker but be warned by his words.        PROVERB

WATER
Split water cannot be retrieved. --- What is done cannot be undone.                 PROVERB

Running water is never stale and insects do not nest in a busy  door-hinge.                PROVERB

In this world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.                 LAO TZU

WEALTH
He is rich who knows when he has had enough.         LAO TZU

When wealth is centralized the people are dispersed; when wealth is distributed the people are brought together.         CONFUCIUS

WIFE
Ugly wife or mean concubine is better than an empty home.       PROVERB

Women have a mother-nature and a daughter-nature, there are no women with a wife-nature. The quality of wife is an acquired character; it is a combination of mother and daughter.       LU XUN

WIND
In shaping the snow into blossoms, the north wind is tender after all.                 BING XIN

WINE
Cutting the stream with a sword won’t stop the water from flowing; drinking wine to dispel sorrow  only makes the pain more keen.
PROVERB

WISDOM
Great wisdom consists in not demanding too much of human nature, and yet not altogether spoiling it by indulgence.         LIN YUTANG

WISH
Farmers wish for rain, while travelers wish for fine weather.       CHINESE SAYING

Carriage-makers wish that people would be rich; coffin-makers wish that people would die early. It is so not because carriage-makers are kind and coffin-makers are evil, but because carriage cannot be sold if people are not rich; coffins cannot be sold if nobody dies.               HAN FEITZU

WOMAN
Women are prone to weeping. Weeping is women’s weapon. Few can resist the baptism of women’s tears. Weeping is also a “safety valve” in women’s heart. A woman’s patience is great, for her husband and children, she endures wrongful treatment and sufferings.... if she gets more upset and comes to the end of her forbearance, she will turn all her grievances into a running current of tears which rush from her “safety valve”. By doing this, she empties her heart and gets ready to receive more grievances.        LIANG SHIQIU

WORDS
Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men.                  CONFUCIUS

The spoken and written words are signs of failure. Whoever is truly measuring himself against fate has no time for such things. As to those who are strong and winning, most of time they keep silent. Consider, for instance, the eagle when it swoops upon a rabbit: it is the rabbit that squeals, not the eagle.          LU XUN

Words repeated by many are easily believed. You may doubt something incorrect when ten people talk about it, yet, you may think it correct when a hundred people talk about it. You will firmly believe its correctness when a thousand people talk about it.       HAN FEITZU

WORK
To labor without ceasing all one’s life, and then, without living to enjoy the fruits, worn out with labor, to depart, one knows not whither - is not this a just cause for grief?          CHUANG TZU

WORRY
O Man, you who do not live a hundred.... why fret a thousand?                 CHINESE SAYING

WORSHIP          He who knows the precepts by heart, but fails to practice them, is like one who lights a lamp and then shuts his eyes.        CHINESE SAYING

WRITERS AND WRITING
It seems to me that the polemics aimed at the vices of an era should drop out of sight at the same time as their targets. My writings can be compared with the white corpuscles that form a scab over a wound: as long as they do not eliminate themselves of their own accord, it is a sign that the infection remains active.        LU XUN
 
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