Lady Tan’s Circle of Women Quotes

“Friendship is a contract between two hearts. With hearts united, women can laugh and cry, live and die together,”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“It takes a lifetime to make a friend, but you can lose one in an hour,” she recites. “Life without a friend is life without sun. Life without a friend is death.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“There is soft happiness in sadness and deep sadness in happiness.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“I wish I were a giant gingko tree hundreds of years old, with the deep roots it takes to stand strong against mighty winds. Instead, I feel like a sapling in a typhoon, desperately trying to hang on.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

“I’ve been lucky to have been cared for and loved since childhood by a circle of women. Now it’s time for me to create a wider circle, so I can do for my daughters and other women in the household what Grandmother, Miss Zhao, Meiling, and even Poppy have done for”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“A woman who helps others helps herself.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“A woman is a woman whether born in the dirt or on silk.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“A friend without faults will never be found”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

“Friendship is a contract between two hearts. With hearts united, women can laugh and cry, live and die together.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“Store up good deeds and you will meet with good. Store up evil actions and you will meet with evil.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“All the sorrows of the world arise from parting, whether in life or by death.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

“Human life is like a sunbeam passing through a crack.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“I always assured him our son would become master of the Garden of Fragrant Delights. Now Manzi never will.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“I always think about the tie between emotions and the body. Fierce joy attacks yang; fierce anger damages yin. If I were to write a book, I’d want to include Liver-related conditions that are affected by the different types of anger we women must hide from our husbands, mothers-in-law, and concubines. And then there are the ailments connected to Lung emotions—sadness and worry.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“You must speak if you wish to be heard.” Her features soften, perhaps because she realizes she’s been harsh. “I’m not angry at you,” she says. “I’m irritated with men. I’m lucky to love your grandfather, but most men—other doctors, especially—don’t like to see us succeed. You must always show them respect and let them think they know more than you do, while understanding that you can achieve something they never can. You can actually help women.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“balance of life through yin and yang—dark and light, death and life.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“To live is to suffer.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

“I wish I could explain to them that while I take pride in what I’ve accomplished with their footbinding, I despise this chore with equal measure. Who among us would wish to inflict agony on her child? We say we want sons to continue the family line, but sometimes I wonder if what we’re really saying is that we’d rather have a son than do this.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

“Your silence is like rain on my worries, feeding and growing them.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“But I believe we have even more to gain than a husband’s admiration, and that is compassion. We may not care for concubines, but it’s important to remember that each one came from the womb of a woman. Every girl—no matter how small-minded or unfortunate—had a mother who nursed and cared for her.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“sometimes I feel like I’m drowning from the expectations and responsibilities that have been placed on me.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“A midwife’s contact with blood places her on the same base level as a butcher. Furthermore, midwives are disreputable. They are too much in the world.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“It takes a lifetime to make a friend, but you can lose one in an hour,” she recites. “Life without a friend is life without sun. Life without a friend is death.” I nod in acceptance of her”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“You are a little girl, so you are still in milk days.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“It may not be decorous to say aloud, but we women - rich, poor, educated, uneducated - are at the mercy of our bodies: the cycles of blood, the patterns of energy, the depth and complexity of our feelings.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

“Today we can recognize infant-cord rigidity as tetanus presumed to have been contracted while squatting on straw to give birth or sitting on wet ground during or after labor. (Tetanus is still one of the main causes of death for postpartum women in the third world.)”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“term child palace dates to the first or second century C.E. and is still used in contemporary Chinese for the uterus.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“My father was gone for Respectful Lady’s final hours, just as Grandfather is away from us now, which makes me wonder if a death vigil is something we women are compelled to do. I would not want Maoren to watch my final attempts at breath or see the messy things that happen as my soul departs my body.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“No matter what I do or where I go, I must live as a proper Confucian woman: When a girl, obey your father; when a wife, obey your husband; when a widow, obey your son. My entire life will be limited to a total of three places: the house where I lived with my parents, the Mansion of Golden Light, and my future in-laws’ compound and garden. Weeks”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women

“Life without a friend is life without sun. Life without a friend is death.”
― Lisa See, Lady Tan's Circle of Women