Cheng Quotes & Sayings

If a man has been your teacher for a day, you should treat him as your father for the rest of his life. — Wu Cheng'en

The Singapore Media Festival brings together the most important Film and TV events in Singapore under one umbrella. With media convergence, I foresee that the SMF will encompass even more content formats in future, and will keep Singapore on the cutting-edge of media development. I am confident the SMF will be a signature media event for Singapore and the world for many years to come. — Calvin Cheng

He delighted Murs in history with his focused study on the spread of personal electronics through the first world; he aggravated Adler in administration with his focused study on the disparity between Aglionby's publicity budget versus their scholarship budget. He screamed himself hoarse at the sidelines of Koh's soccer match (they lost). He spray-painted the words PEACE, BITCHES on the Dumpster behind a gelato parlor. — Maggie Stiefvater

Oh, sure," Gansey said, still cold and annoyed. "God forbid young men display their principles with futile but public protests when they could be skipping school and judging other students from the backseat of a motor vehicle."

"Principles? Henry Cheng's principles are all about getting larger font in the school newsletter," Ronan said. He did a vaguely offensive version of Henry's voice: "Serif? Sans serif? More bold, less italics. — Maggie Stiefvater

Don't start something that you cannot finish. — Justin Somper

For so many years, the official propaganda machinery had denounced humanitarianism as sentimental trash and advocated human relations based entirely on class allegiance. But my personal experience had shown me that most of the Chinese people remained kind, sensitive, and compassionate even though the cruel reality of the system under which they had to live compelled them to lie and pretend. Pg. 409 — Nien Cheng

Hmmm!" directed to Fai. "Is there such
thing as an answer, Fai?" he asked, though by his tone, Wolfdon could tell he knew the answer to that, if it were possible.
"I would not know, Godric," Fai replied, a bit more solemn than Godric and Cheng. "For knowing thus, the question would be answered, but without, there is neither subjectivity nor objectivity, just truth from above lisped through our
uncouth tongues. Truth, there is. Answers, I cannot say. — Mary-Jean Harris

Use the mind to direct the chi and the chi to mobilise the body. — Cheng Man-ch'ing

But it also had many large posters with messages of a more peaceful nature. These extolled the country's economic achievement since the Cultural Revolution, which was supposed to have liberated the forces of production and increased productivity. Of course, the Cultural Revolution had done just the opposite. Official lies like this, habitually indulged in and frequently displayed by the authorities, served no purpose except to create the impression that truth was unimportant. Pg. 400 — Nien Cheng

I know you can't. Because you're too kind. It's very simple. The attacker must first transform themselves into life forms that can survive in a low-dimensional universe. For instance, a four-dimensional species can transform itself into three-dimensional creatures, or a three-dimensional species can transform itself into two-dimensional life. After the entire civilization has entered a lower dimension, they can initiate a dimensional strike against the enemy without concern for the consequences." Cheng — Liu Cixin

...it's really more intelligent to be able to simplify things than to complicate them. Even if some people think it makes you look stupid. — Eugenia Cheng

With love in our hearts, there is nothing we cannot overcome. — Cheng Yen

Who is moving in the distance? It is the clock's pendulum, Hired by the god of death To measure life. — Gu Cheng

The night has given me dark eyes But I use them to look for light. — Gu Cheng

means "I haven't eaten breakfast" or "I didn't eat breakfast." Maybe I forgot to eat breakfast or maybe I didn't have time to eat breakfast, the result is that I didn't have breakfast. — Yangyang Cheng

What you must do," said Monkey, "is lure the monster from its hiding place, but be certain it is a fight you can survive. — Wu Cheng'en

Pity! The southerly trees have shed their leaves. Nobody comes to appreciate the mountain's beauty. Tomorrow I too will float away. My reflection gone from cool streams. — Cheng Man-ch'ing

Justice? What is justice? It's a mere word. It's an abstract word with no universal meaning. To different classes of people, justice means different things.
~149 — Nien Cheng

As I gazed at Mao's face wearing what was intended as a benign expression but was in fact a smirk of self-satisfaction, I wondered how one single person could have caused the extent of misery that was prevailing in China. There must be something lacking in our own character, I thought, that had made it possible for his evil genius to dominate. Pg. 259 — Nien Cheng

Tai Chi Chuan, the great ultimate, strengthens the weak, raises the sick, invigorates the debilitated, and encourages the timid — Cheng Man-ch'ing

I think the democratic movement will be repressed for now, only to erupt again somewhere down the line.And more blood will be shed, just like it was when Americans fought and died to bring independence, democracy, and freedom to the United States. It's not something you can sit back and wait for someone to give to you voluntarily. — Nien Cheng

I supposed the Red Guards had enjoyed themselves. Is it not true that we all possess some destructive tendencies in our nature? The veneer of civilization is very thin. Underneath lurks the animal in each of us. If I were young and had had a working class background, if I had been brought up to worship Mao and taught to believe him infalliable, would I not have behaved exactly as the Red Guards had done?
~79 — Nien Cheng

If one extends knowledge to the utmost, one will have wisdom. Having wisdom, one can then make choices. — Cheng Yi

In fact, after living in Communist China for so many years, I realized that one of the advantages enjoyed by a democratic government that allows freedom of speech is that the government knows exactly who supports it and who is against it, while a totalitarian government knows nothing of what the people really think.
~pg 55 — Nien Cheng

Bad experience is more bearable when you are not the only sufferer.
~pg 95 — Nien Cheng

The world I feel, within the realm of art, is more genuine than the wrorld of matter. Artistic feeling is not tape measures, spectrographs, or flash camera lens. — Gu Cheng

One of the most ugly aspects of life in Communist China during the Mao Zedong era was the Party's demand that people inform on each other routinely and denounce each other during political campaigns. This practice had a profoundly destructive effect on human relationships. Husbands and wives became guarded with each other, and parents were alienated from their children. The practice inhibited all forms of human contact, so that people no longer wanted to have friends. It also encouraged secretiveness and hypocrisy. To protect himself, a man had to keep his thoughts to himself. When he was compelled to speak, often lying was the only way to protect himself and his family. — Nien Cheng

I must not only keep alive, but I must be as strong as granite, so that no matter how much I was knocked about, I could remain unbroken. — Nien Cheng

I was confident that it [would] not in any way affect my ability to be impartial, objective and non-partisan. — Calvin Cheng

If one concentrates on one thing and does not get away from it ... he will possess strong, moving power. — Cheng Yi

Zero dimensions! Have you seen such a thing done?" "No. We've only witnessed two-dimensionalization. We've never even seen one-dimensionalization. But somewhere, some Zero-Homers must be trying. No one knows if they've ever succeeded. Comparatively, it's easier to lower the speed of light to zero, so we've seen more evidence of such attempts to lower the speed of light past zero and return it to infinity." "Is that even theoretically possible?" "We don't know. Maybe the Zero-Homers have theories that say yes, but I don't think so. Zero-lightspeed is an impassable wall. Zero-lightspeed is absolute death for all existence, the cessation of all motion. Under such conditions, the subjective cannot influence the objective in any way, so how can the 'hour hand' be shifted past it? I think the Zero-Homers are practicing a kind of religion, a kind of performance art." Cheng — Liu Cixin

It wasn't that Henry was less of himself in English. He was less of himself out loud. His native language was thought. — Maggie Stiefvater

Large portraits of Mao on wooden boards several feet high stood at main street corners. Painted to make the old man look extremely youthful, healthy, and fat (a sign of well-being in China), these pictures provided a mocking contrast to the thin, pale-faced pedestrians walking listlessly below them. Pg. 193 — Nien Cheng

Cheng Xin now recalled the strange feeling she had experienced each time she had looked at Van Gogh's painting. Everything else in the painting - the trees that seemed to be on fire, and the village and mountains at night - showed perspective and depth, but the starry sky above had no three-dimensionality at all, like a painting hanging in space. Because the starry night was two-dimensional. How could Van Gogh have painted such a thing in 1889? Did he, having suffered a second breakdown, truly leap across five centuries — Liu Cixin

Wind? 'Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts.'" Yifan said, "The Solar System humans spilled their last drop of blood to stay with their land - well, save for two drops: you and AA. But what was the point? They didn't last, and neither did their land. Hundreds of millions of years have passed in the great universe, and do you think anyone still remembers them? This obsession with home and land, this permanent adolescence where you're no longer children but are afraid to leave home - this is the fundamental reason your race was annihilated. I am sorry if I've offended you, but it's the truth." Cheng — Liu Cixin

I take it we're friends now," Henry said.
"We must be," Gansey replied. "Jane says it should be so."
"It should be so," Blue agreed. — Maggie Stiefvater

The earth is black in front of the cliff, and no orchids grow.
Creepers crawl in the brown mud by the path.
Where did the birds of yesterday fly?
To what other mountain did the animals go?
Leopards and pythons dislike this ruined spot;
Cranes and snakes avoid the desolation.
My criminal thoughts of those days past
Brought on the disaster of today. — Wu Cheng'en

Nothing in this world is difficult, but thinking makes it seem so. Where there is true will, there is always a way. — Wu Cheng'en

The longer children live on the street, the more they realize the meaninglessness of words. They don't say things such as 'Thank you' and 'you are my friend.' They'd rather show through their actions what is inside. It is more difficult for these street kids to speak than to act. — Chi Cheng Huang

The poet Tao Yuan-ming (A.D. 376 - 427) used the lotus to represent a man of honor in a famous poem, saying that the lotus rose out of mud but remained unstained. [ ... ] Perhaps the poet was too idealistic, I thought as I listened to the laughter of the Red Guards overhead. They seemed to be blissfully happy in their work of destruction because they were sure they were doing something to satisfy their God, Mao Zedong. — Nien Cheng

Leaves," Ronan Lynch's voice said, full of intention.

"Dust," Adam Parrish said.

"Wind," Blue Sargent said.

"Shit," Henry Cheng added. — Maggie Stiefvater

She remembered Grace telling her about Lorcan's evasiveness when she'd first joined the Noctourne-his ability to speak without saying anything, to talk in riddles.
He's a conundrum, thought Cheng Li. A walking, talking conundrum — Justin Somper

After Supper the Master dismissed all except Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha the Monk. He took them out with him and said, Look at that wonderful moolight. It makes me long for the time when I can return home. — Wu Cheng'en

With passions stilled and one's nature firm, all destinies are in harmony; When the full moon of contemplation is reached you will be pure. — Wu Cheng'en

My master was kidnapped by your household's demon chieftains. Return him early, and I'll spare your lives! If you don't, I'll overturn your den and reduce you spirits to pus and blood! — Wu Cheng'en

We don't know what it's like not to be in love with you. We loved you the moment you looked at us, held our hand, danced dirty, kissed us. We were lost in you way before we even met, before the thought crossed your mind that you were bored and we were vaguely good-looking, interesting, exotic, fuckable. While you were weighing options, we were just hoping it wouldn't hurt too much - the fucking, or the falling in love, or the rejection. We didn't get to choose. - Kai Cheng Thom to -----, 2013 (age 22) — Jeanette Lynes

What do you mean Ronan's a magical entity? Is he a demon? Because this all makes sense if so. — Maggie Stiefvater

From the point of view of the Chinese Communist Party, the greatest casualties of the Cultural Revolution were the Party's prestige and its ability to govern. Pg. 539 — Nien Cheng

When man has a virtuous thought, Heaven will grant him support. — Wu Cheng'en

Patrick Cheng's Radical Love is not only an excellent introduction to LGBT theology but an important contribution to the discipline of theology and the life of the church. It is a must read for anyone who cares about the health of the church and theology today. — James H. Cone

So how do you make your exit?" she asked. "In a puff of smoke? Or do you just vaporize?"
He grinned at her. "Much as I hate to be a crushing disappointment to you, I reckon I'll just take the door. — Justin Somper

I wanted to protect you, but I'm starting to think that the best thing you can do for people is teach them how to protect themselves. Every girl needs to be at least a little dangerous. — Kai Cheng Thom

But that's the thing about Outs. They are so far on the periphery that people underestimate them. And people don't realize that they've underestimated them until it's too late. — Roseanne Cheng

A mind that worries about the past is distracted, and a mind that worries about the future is delusional. — Cheng Yen

The best way to show respect to your fellow athletes is to give the best performance you can. — Cheng Fei

Are Singaporeans so easily offended? Please. Have more of a backbone and thick-skin. Are you going to go on a frenzied witch hunt just because some foreigner called you a loser on the Internet? — Calvin Cheng

My own outlook and my values had been formed long ago. I did not believe in dividing people into rigid classes, and I did not believe in class struggle as a means to promote progress. I believed that to rebuild after so many years of war, China needed a peaceful enviroment and the unity of all sections of society, not perpetual revolution.
~150-151 — Nien Cheng

No more coming home as to a death sentence.
No more leaving after this leaving. — Boey Kim Cheng

Among Chinese Singaporeans and Malaysians, many hold the belief that when Admiral Cheng Ho landed in Nanyang, he relieved himself in the jungle, and the steaming puddle of shit and piss evolved into the durian tree. To put it less elegantly, the mounds of flesh inside the durian resemble a row of little turds, resting neatly in a boat-shaped husk. — Wong Yoon Wah

Hero is he alone who vies with powers supreme! — Wu Cheng'en

When there is more gratitude, there is less distrust. — Cheng Yen

I was silently reciting to myself the 23rd Psalm, 'The Lord is my shepherd; I shal not want ... ' [ ... ] The man with the tinted spectacles and the man from the police department were looking at me thoughtfully. They mistook my silence as a sign of weakening. I knew I had to show courage. In fact, I felt much better for having recited the words of the psalm. I had not been so free of fear the whole evening as I was in that moment standing beside the black jeep, a symbol of repression. I lifted my head and said in a loud and firm voice, 'I'm not guilty! I have nothing to confess. — Nien Cheng

Pilfering was common in Communist China's state-owned enterprises, as the Party secretaries were slack in guarding properties that belonged to the government and poorly paid workers felt it fair compensation for their low pay. The practice was so widespread that it was an open secret. The workers joked about it and called it "Communism," which in Chinese translation means "sharing property." Pg. 390 — Nien Cheng

If you can't be unafraid, be afraid and happy. — Maggie Stiefvater

A team of horses cannot overtake a word that has left the mouth. — Wu Cheng'en

Nothing in the world is difficult, it is only our own thoughts that make things seem so. — Wu Cheng'en

Ji-li's deeply moving story should be on the shelf of every person's library. Her courage in the face of adversity and her steadfast loyalty and love for her family are truly inspirational for young and old alike. — Nien Cheng

Love is taking care of oneself by freeing one's mind of worries and conducting one self with propriety. — Master Cheng Yen

Once you know something, you can't un-know it. — Roseanne Cheng

The five excellences include: calligraphy, painting, poetry, medicine, and t'ai chi chuan. — Cheng Man-ch'ing

To count a few gulls makes the journey happy.
In the reedy bend, under the willow bank,
My wife and children smile with me.
The moment I fall asleep, wind and waves are quiet;
No glory, no disgrace, and not a single worry. — Wu Cheng'en

Henry shuffled the jewelled insect back out of his pocket. It amber heart warmed light through the pit again. "Back in the lab, of course, as father dear tries to copy it with nonmagical parts. My mother told me to keep this one to remind me of what I am."
"And what is that?"
The bee illuminated both itself and Henry: its translucent wings, Henry's wickedly cut eyebrows.
"Something more. — Maggie Stiefvater

People do evil simply because they do not know. — Cheng Yi

While I listened to the words of homage to Mao, I remembered Mao's awesome power, like a blanket over China threatening to smother whomever he chose. Pg. 218 — Nien Cheng

And on the way, we'll have plenty of time to talk or not talk about whatever's on your mind — Justin Somper

Ultimate in respectability: not only received back into the ranks of the people but also — Nien Cheng

When technology is no longer novel, videos need more substance to impel viewers to watch, engage, and share, and we've already reached that point with camera drones. — Eric Cheng

He raised his arm to strike me. At that very moment, [my daughter] Meiping's cat, Fluffy, came through the kitchen door, jumped on the man's leg from behind, and sank his teeth into the flesh of the man's calf. — Nien Cheng

Ronan was not going to Henry Cheng's under any circumstances. All that smiling and activism gave him a rash. — Maggie Stiefvater

The hundred flavors of rare dainties Are no more once you've eaten your fill. You may accumulate private savings But not in your stomach private hoardings! — Wu Cheng'en

It's alwasy best to look ahead and not backwards. Possessions are not important. Think of those beautiful porcelain pieces I had. Before they came to me, they had all passed through the hands of many people, surviving wars and natural disasters. I got them only because someone else lost them. While I had them, I enjoyed them; now some other people will enhjoy them. Life itself is transitory. Possesions are not important. — Nien Cheng

a generation:
the black night gave me black eyes
still I use them to seek the light — Gu Cheng

Wife indeed!" laughed Monkey. "You haven't got a wife now. There are some sorts of Taoists that are family men; but who ever heard of a Buddhist priest calmly talking about his 'wife'? — Wu Cheng'en

Hey, can you teach me the word for friend that you wrote on my card?"
"Peng you," I say.
"Peng you," she says, only instead of pung yo, it sounds like penguin. "Shee shee for being my penguin," she says. — Andrea Cheng

This skin cripples me. It always has. - Kai Cheng Thom to -----, 2013 (age 22) — Jeanette Lynes

If you want to have a future, don't do anything with no future in it. — Wu Cheng'en

We all saw it, and he did the same thing we all did - we pretended it was none of our business and that it would go away on its own. We told ourselves we were just seeing a tiny piece of Agnes's life. And if you only get a small piece of something, it's much easier to convince yourself it's better when you're not around, and then choose to ignore it. — Roseanne Cheng

This is a test of mettle. That's the Ganseylike part."
Gansey knew that Henry was right by the zing of feeling in his heart. It was very similar to the sensation he'd felt at the toga party. That feeling of being known. Not in a superficial way, but in something deeper and truer. He asked, "What is my prize if I pass?"
"What is ever any prize of a test of mettle? The prize is your honor, Mr. Gansey."
Doubly known. Triply known. Gansey wasn't precisely sure how to cope with being so accurately pegged by a person who was, after all, only a recent acquaintance. — Maggie Stiefvater

Be grateful always for everything and everyone at every moment. — Master Cheng Yen

The small things are the fuses to get the bigger things to explode. — Roseanne Cheng

Since good intentions and sympathy for others often led people into trouble, the Chinese people had invented a new proverb that said, 'The more you do, the more trouble you have; the less you do, the less trouble you have. If you do nothing whatever, you will become a model citizen. — Nien Cheng

As I stood in the room looking at it for the last time, I felt again the cold metal of the handcuffs on my wrists and remembered the physical suffering and mental anguish I had endured while fighting with all the willpower and intellect God had given me for that rare and elusive thing in a Communist country called justice. Pg. 351 — Nien Cheng

So I'm deputizing for the deputy, am I?, asked Connor with a grin. — Justin Somper

Figure 5: Business Situation Framework Note: Bolded items are relevant in a higher percentage of cases. — Victor Cheng

The biggest danger I feel are an emerging group of Westernised, educated, champagne socialists and latte liberals who pontificate about social inequality, democracy and freedom in the comfort of their condos. — Calvin Cheng

You scour these Chinatowns of the mind, translating them
like sutras Xuan Zhang fetched from India, testing ways
return might be possible against these homesick inventions,
trace the traveller's alien steps across borders, and in between
discover how transit has a way of lasting, the way these Chinatowns
grew out of not knowing whether to return or to stay, and then became home. — Boey Kim Cheng

She's around here somewhere. Check your pockets. She could be there. Sometimes she falls into these cracks between the floorboards. — Maggie Stiefvater

And it was funny, that they call it falling, because that was what it was. The ground giving up underneath you. The surge of air. He did not stand a chance. — Bill Cheng

All kinds of mysterious phenomena exist in this world, but answers to most of them have come with advances in scientific knowledge. Love is the sole holdout-nothing can explain it. A Chinese writer by the name of Ah Cheng wrote that love is just a chemical reaction, an unconventional point of view that seemed quite fresh at the time. But if love can be controlled and initiated by means of chemistry, then novelists would be out of a job. So while he may have had his finger on the truth, I'll remain a member of the loyal opposition. — Mo Yan

The boatman then gently guided the raft across. They saw a dead body floating. At the sight of this, the Master was greatly frightened. But Sun smiled and said, "Master do not be alarmed! That corpse is none other than your own." Zhu Bajie said, "It is you, it is you!" Sha the Monk clapped his hands, and also said, "It is you, it is you!" The boatman also remarked "It was yours, I congratulate you." The three pilgrims congratulated him, and they quietly crossed over the Could Ferry in safety. The Master's shape was changed, and he jumped ashore on the other side with a very light body. — Wu Cheng'en