Bei Quotes & Sayings

Traitors! I shall oppose you in the name of the Han! — Liu Bei

It is not I who have been consigned to the bedroom of history. — Corazon Aquino

Only wisdom and virtue can truly win men's devotion. — Liu Bei

Love didn't make you weak, it made you stronger. — Cassandra Clare

The name Bei Dao was actually given to me with the help of friends. When we were publishing our unofficial magazine, Today, we wanted to avoid being harassed by the police so we were trying to think of names that we could use. It was done very casually. — Bei Dao

Those who stand in the way of virtue shall fail! — Liu Bei

Freedom is nothing but the distance
between the hunter and the hunted — Bei Dao

I would think how words go straight up in a thin line, quick and harmless, and how terribly doing goes along the earth, clinging to it, so that after a while the two lines are too far apart for the same person to straddle from one to the other; and that sin and love and fear are just sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had and cannot have until they forget the words. — William Faulkner

Writing is the thing that sustains me and keeps me going. It is a form of self-preservation for me. — Bei Dao

Storms are good friends because they light up the way to wisdom! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

I don't think of writing my poems for China or for the world. I mainly think of a small audience of friends and people I know. I am writing for that small group. They are not necessarily going to be able to read it, but that's what I have in mind when I write. — Bei Dao

Your words bring me joy. Let the two of us unite to bring forth a world of peace and virtue. — Liu Bei

Being a poet in the States is quite different from being one in China, because in the States poetry depends on the universities for its support. They finance the poets and help them get published. That isn't so in China. But overall it is the same. You can't change society with poetry. — Bei Dao

I love you too, bao bei, with everything I am, and I'll do it until the sun falls from the sky. — Kristen Ashley

I have no need to take up each thing that wants to throw its cause on us and show that it is occupied only with itself, not with us, only with its good, not with ours. Look at the rest for yourselves. Do truth, freedom, humanity, justice, desire anything else than that you grow enthusiastic and serve them? — Max Stirner

Do no evilness because it is a small one; do not leave a small deed undone because it is just a petty one. — Liu Bei

All men have their appointed time; that's something no horse can change. — Liu Bei

In the world I am
Always a stranger
I do not understand its language
It does not understand my silence — Bei Dao

the bouquet

Between me and the world
you are a bay, a sail
the faithful ends of a rope
you are a fountain, a wind,
a shrill childhood cry.

Between me and the world
you are a picture frame, a window
a field covered in wildflowers
you are a breath, a bed,
a night that keeps the stars company.

Between me and the world,
you are a calendar, a compass
a ray of light that slips through the gloom
you are a biographical sketch, a book mark
a preface that comes at the end.

between me and the world
you are a gauze curtain, a mist
a lamp shining in my dreams
you are a bamboo flute, a song without words
a closed eyelid carved in stone.

Between me and the world
you are a chasm, a pool
an abyss plunging down
you are a balustrade, a wall
a shield's eternal pattern. — Bei Dao

The only holiday of independence which I can never leave out is the celebration of the independence of the Jewish State of Israel. — Milos Zeman

My father was a restaurant man, laundry man in his lifetime. And I've often wondered how and why did I become an actor? Where did I get the so-called talent to express myself? And I look back, and I see that my mother was very animated. I can remember that she used to, what she called 'bei zhu.' — James Hong

On the one hand poetry is useless. It can't change the world materially. On the other hand it is a basic part of human existence. It came into the world when humans did. It's what makes human beings human. — Bei Dao

As a writer, the most important thing for me is to continue to write, no matter where I am. — Bei Dao

The northern people are riders and the southern people sailors; it is said quite true. — Liu Bei

Remember who you are. Realize what you are. Do both those things, or you'll either be completely useless-or too dangerous to help anyone. — Sarah Fine

Not many sounds in life, and I include all urban and all rural sounds, exceed in interest a knock at the door. — Charles Lamb

You shouldn't never regret something that made you smile — Bei Maejor

Never do an evil act just because it is trivial; never leave a good act undone just because it's small. — Liu Bei

Bei Dao became the most well-known name for me because of certain criticism of my work. Bei Dao was the name under which my work was criticized. So I became more well-known under Bei Dao than under the other names. — Bei Dao

Perhaps the final hour is come I have left no testament Only a pen, for my mother I am no hero in an age without heroes I just want to be a man. — Bei Dao