China Quotes

“You never know in life. Sometimes people can mean what they say.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“And to learn, he must be curious and also humble. For a proud man never learns anything.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“It’s strange how people can preach brotherly love one day and tear you to bits the next.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“Why do I always have to want more?” he asked the river. And receiving no reply, he shook his head.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“We are measured not only by our triumphs, young man, but by our persistence. If we fail, we must try harder.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“They say that we’re all made by our previous lives. Our affinities for each other were made in the deep past, and when we meet people who become important in our lives, it may seem like a chance accident—no more significant than the flapping of a butterfly’s wing—but in fact a hidden force is drawing us together across the surface of the stream of life. Yuanfen, they call it.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“We love our husbands for their character, including their faults. I don’t mean great wickednesses, but the small faults we all have. And we love each other in body as well as soul. And the body isn’t perfect, either, but we love it because we love the person.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“As we grow older, we become more aware of the larger flow of life,”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“It’s always a good rule in life to be as honest with people as you can, but never tell them where the money is.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“the joy of the craftsman is greater than the pleasure of the owner.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China: The Novel

“there’s a disaster, it always comes out of the blue.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“All we've done is ruin China. Every time. Think of it: We want China to be open and to trade with us. When they won't, because however foolishly they closed themselves off from the outside world, we come in and ruin them. Is that going to induce them to welcome us? Is that even going to make it possible for them to increase their trade? No. The first thing you've got to do in all business - or diplomacy - is discover the other fellow's point of view and what he needs. Then you've got to find a way to make it in his self-interest to act as you wish. It takes patience, but any other course of action will be counterproductive in the long run. We need to help the Chinese, not punish them. Call it enlightened self-interest, call it anything you like. But that's what we should do.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“In calligraphy and painting, which are almost the same thing, both the yin and the yang must be present," said Mr. Gu. "You know this. Nut you do not practice it. You think too much. You impose. This is the yang. You must let go, not try to form your thought. Forget yourself. Allow the negative, the yin, to enter. Contemplate in silence and then, with much practice, without your seeking any form at all, your hand will unconsciously become the thought.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“Your kind husband is not a lie. Your children are not a lie. Your home is not a lie. We must build on all the things that are true in our lives. And you have more to build on than most people. That's how we go forward.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“You will say I am 'hurrying like a traveler with far to go.' A famous quote, from Nineteen Old Poems. It referred to the short time between life and death - with the implications that one must seize the day.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“Not many people are good all of the time," she went on. "More like some of the time. You just have to hope a person performs more good actions than bad ones. I think," she concluded, "that one has to look for what is best in people.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“When we're young," she said carefully, "we expect people to be good or bad. But they aren't you know. We're all just somewhere in between.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“Those lacquer boxes I love to hold - the ones with the deep patterns cut into them and the many layers of lacquer hardened like a stone - they'll last as long as the Grand Canal or the Great Wall. Sometimes, when I look at those boxes, I think they're how a great city must look, seen from the eye of Heaven. Walls within walls, streets and avenues, palaces and temples, houses and courtyards, all packed tight as a geometric pattern on a box. Dynasties come and go, war and disease, famine and flood. But Nanjing and Beijing are still standing; and even if they weren't, the idea of them would still be there, preserved like a garden, in every lacquer box.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“I believed it then, and despite all I've seen in my life, I still believe it now: our kingdom is eternal. when you think of the thousands of years of our history, the wisdom we've learned, our arts and inventions. . . Why, even our writing's a miracle: Every character is like a little world. And when it comes to the finer things of life, everything's made to last.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“When Confucius was asked how to cure the many ills of a corrupt government, what did he say? Perform the sacrifices correctly. What did that mean? That if your conduct is incorrect in small things, it will be incorrect in great things. Honesty and right conduct begin in the home, then in the village, the town, the province, the whole empire. The conduct of the emperor, who makes the great yearly sacrifices to the gods, must also be correct. Otherwise his whole empire will be rotten. Everything must hang together. One weak link breaks the whole chain. This is what Confucius understood.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“Of course it was not easy. Virtue is not easy. Honorable conduct is not easy. That is our tradition, the thing for which our education prepares us - to do the thing that is not easy. Have you turned your back upon all the teachings of Confucius?”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“That was the trouble with the I Ching. It seldom gave clear answers. Cryptic words, oracular expressions, mysteries to be solved. Everything lay in the hands of the interpreter. Sometimes the message seemed clear; often it did not.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“The love of the young is always a little selfish. It cannot be otherwise.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“Don't despise the Cantonese language, young man. It contains many ancient words that have since been lost in the Mandarin we speak.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China

“For this was Jingdezhen, porcelain capital of China, where the pottery made from local clay was shaped, painted, glazed, and fired in the town’s kilns—of which, if one counted even the smallest, there were more than nine thousand. The potters of Jingdezhen had been making porcelain since the Han dynasty, more than fifteen hundred years ago. There were many varieties, but the most famous was the blue and white.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China: The Novel

“Remember what Napoleon said: China is a sleeping giant. When she awakes, the world will tremble.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, China