86 quotes found
“I suggest that the Western impact, at least in nineteenth-century China, was overstated (and misstated) by an earlier generation of American historians. An especially egregious example of this, I a...”
“As historians, our aim is to do our utmost to understand and elucidate past reality. At the same time, in pursuit of this goal, we must use ordering concepts that by definition inevitably introduce...”
“Have been most timid of cowards from day of birth," replied Li Han, without shame, "and this is an inauspicious day."- "No it ain't," said Olaf, "it ban Thursday.”
“And so the result of several years of Everybody Shareskyism, other than slaughtering people, is for everybody to stand around and stare blankly at each other.”
“Perhaps the god who had made the Cat People intended them as a joke. They had schools, but no education; politicians but no government; people, but no personal integrity; faces, but no concept of f...”
“I reserve magick for necessities, a bit like the good china. It has a time and a place, but eating peanut butter sandwiches off it each morning chips and devalues it.”
“Because different cultures see a particular animal as representing a certain human virtue or vice, the use of animal imagery also allows for more colorful commentary on the human condition.”
“As the four girls were taking her father's life, she had tried to rush onto the stage. But two old university janitors held her down and whispered into her ear that she would lose her own life if s...”
“That's because true travel, the kind with no predetermined end, is one of the most selfish endeavors we can possibly undertake-an act in which we focus solely on our own fulfillment, with little re...”
“Honor the old but allow for innovation.”
“Why was I still traveling? Was it purely because it was better than turning around and going home, where I would have to make grown-up choices about my future? Or was I waiting to happen across a p...”
“Contentment can only be found in not envying others or comparing yourself to them but in being satisfied with what you have.”
“The sacrifices of time and money that Chinese friends will make for one another often go far beyond what is expected or accepted in Western society.”
“I have read more about Oprah Winfreys ass than I have about the rise of China as an economic superpower. I fear this is no exaggeration. Perhaps China is rising as an economic superpower because it...”
“Understandably she had a lot of suitors, just like any other girls in China with two arms and legs.”
“Part of the Maoist project was the deliberate construction of a new moral identity. To do this it was necessary to destroy peoples previous sense of who they were and to make sure there was no room...”
“Ephraim lifted the top of the trunk. Neatly stacked were mementoes from what seemed like hundreds of journeys. Right on top was an etching of the Eiffel tower next to an African mask that looked at...”
“But it also had many large posters with messages of a more peaceful nature. These extolled the countrys economic achievement since the Cultural Revolution, which was supposed to have liberated the ...”
“The progress of science has always been the result of a close interplay between our concepts of the universe and our observations on nature. The former can only evolve out of the latter and yet the...”
“Measured in terms of the World Bank poverty standard, the number of poor people in China fell from 652 million to 135 million between 1981 and 2004 - in other words, more than half a billion people...”
