“An unromantic poem I mean to make, of one who only lives for duty’s sake.”

Bigger things than the State will fall, all religion will fall.

Poetry is to hold judgment on your soul.

I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future.

Take the life-lie away from the average man and straight away you take away his happiness.

There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt.

Oh, law and order! I often think it is that that is at the bottom of all the misery in the world.

Look into any man’s heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to keep concealed.

So to conduct one’s life as to realize oneself-this seems to me the highest attainment possible to a human being. It is the task of one and all of us, but most of us bungle it.

There is so much falsehood both at home and at school. At home one must not speak, and at school we have to stand and tell lies to the children.

A party is like a sausage machine, it grinds up all sorts of heads together into the same baloney.

It was then that I began to look into the seams of your doctrine. I wanted only to pick at a single knot; but when I had got that undone, the whole thing raveled out. And then I understood that it was all machine-sewn.

It’s not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that walks in us. It’s all sorts of dead ideas, and lifeless old beliefs, and so forth. They have no vitality, but they cling to us all the same, and we can’t get rid of them.

A forest bird never wants a cage.

It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.

A friend married is a friend lost.

Most critical fault-finding, when reduced to its essentials, simply amounts to reproach of the author because he is himself — thinks, feels, sees, and creates, as himself, instead of seeing and creating in the way the critic would have done.

The American experience influenced my understanding of individuality, basic human rights, freedom of expression and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

I haven’t had an easy life, but at some point ,you have to take responsibility for yourself and shape who it is that you want to be.

For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political.

I’m totally independent. I don’t bear any responsibility to any system.

As a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It’s a responsibility. It is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don’t know who you are and why you are here.

Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.

I deal with students every day – from China, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And I’ve noticed that the Chinese students are the least trained in having a sense of aesthetics.

I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.