Chinese quotes

Nothing and no one can destroy the Chinese people. Theyare relentless survivors† They yield, they bend to the wind, but they never break.

-Buck, Pearl ne¤  e Sydenstricker
  China, Past and Present, ch.1.

Frankly speaking, it is difficult to trust the Chinese.Once bitten bya snake, you feel suspicious even when you see a piece of rope.

-Dalai Lama originally Tenzin Gyatso
  Quoted in the Observer Colour Magazine, 5  Apr.

Corruption is more than a poison afflicting Chinese business life. It is Chinese business life.

-The Economist
  The Economist, 29  Jan.

Je suis autant Chinois que Fran c° ais. I am as much Chinese as French.

-Flaubert, Gustave
  Letter to Mme Louise Colet, 8  Aug.

Which I wish to remarkö And my language is plainö That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar, Which the same I would rise to explain.

-Harte, (Francis) Bret
  'Plain Language from Truthful James', stanza1. The poem became popularly known as'That Heathen Chinee'.

We are ruined by Chinese cheap labour.

-Harte, (Francis) Bret
  'Plain Language from Truthful James', stanza 7.

Why haven't Igot a real'home'öa real lifeöwhyhaven't Igot a Chinesenurse with green trousers and two babies who rush at me and clasp my knees? I'm not a girlöI'm a woman. I want things†all this love and joy that fights for outletöand all this life drying up, like milk in an old breast.

-Beauchamp
  Letter to  John Middleton Murry, 23 Mar.

The Chinese are the aristocracy of the East.

-Maugham,W(illiam) Somerset
  The Gentleman in the Parlour.

It's all honourable enough in its way, but it creates societies which simply cannot sustain any kind of democratic structure. It always leads to totalitarian and corrupt tyrannies† There's no tradition of moral individual courage in Chinese culture.

-Mo,Timothy
  Of Chinese tradition. In The Fiction Magazine, vol.1, no.4.

We said to the Chinese,'You have behaved very ill; we have had to teach you better manners; it has cost us something to do it, but we will send our bill in, and you must pay our charges.' That was done, and they have certainly profited by the lesson. They have become free traders too.

-Palmerston, HenryJohnTemple, 3rd Viscount
  On the OpiumWars of1839^42. Election speech at Tiverton, Devon.

The imperialists brought the Chinese people cannons rather than flowers, death instead of 'human rights'† How can they be in a position to instruct us on'civil rights'?

-People's Daily
  People's Daily, 22 Mar.

The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinese wishes to enjoy as much and as delicately as possible.

-Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl
  The Problems of China.

Wesit†and lookout attheboysintheir happy play†we kneel still with one little cheek wistfully pressed against the pane†and we go and stand before the glass.We see the complexion we were not to spoil, and the white frock† Then the curse begins to act upon us. It finishes its work when we are grown women, who no more look out wistfullyat a more healthy life; we are contented.We fit our sphere as a Chinese woman's foot fits her shoe, exactly, as though God made bothöand yet he knows nothing of either.

-Iron
  Lyndall.The Story of an African Farm, ch.17,'Lyndall'.

13 Quotes found. Displaying quotes 1 through 13

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2005 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.