“Keep in mind that whenever you are in a crisis, you are in the midst of danger as well as opportunity.”

But you will still look Chinese, and when people meet you, they’ll see a Chinese girl no matter how well you speak English.

To my surprise I found her cheerful and free of pain, perhaps because of the small doses of morphine she was being given.

You must rely on yourself. No matter what else people may steal from you, they will never be able to take away your knowledge.

She was surrounded by neighbours and friends who congregated at her bedside day and night.

People with yuan fen are destined to like one another

In this cosy, noisy, gregarious world of the “all-chinese” sickbed, so different from the stark, sterile solitude of the American hospital room, her life had assumed the astounding quality of a continuous farewell party.

Suen Le! (it means, “Let it be.

Revenge is not worthy of you. If you concentrate on revenge, you will keep those wounds fresh that would otherwise have healed.

The future belongs to you. Should anyone insult you, tell yourself this:

At the age of three my grand aunt proclaimed her independence by categorically refusing to have her feet bound, resolutely tearing off the bandages as fast as they were applied.

But you can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.

You have your whole life ahead of you. Be smart. Study hard and be independent.

She was bedridden falling a fall which broke her hip.

Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.

I read because I have to. It drives everything else from my mind. It lets me escape to find other world.

The world is changing. You must make your own life outside this home.

And now that I don’t want to own anything any more and am free, now I suddenly own everything, now my inner riches are immeasurable.

Life is the constant opportunity to wake up.

The Moon and Pleiades have set, Midnight is nigh, The time is passing, passing, yet Alone I lie.

You’ll always be expected to know Chinese, and if you don’t, I’m afraid they will not respect you as much.

If this country [America] is to survive, the best-fed-nation myth had better be recognized for what it is

How rash to assert that man shapes his own destiny. All he can do is determine his inner responses.

Joy seems to me a step beyond happiness.

Trying to beat my personal best