Matthew Polly Quotes

#1. A club hurts the flesh, but evil words hurt the bone. -Traditional Chinese Proverb

Matthew Polly

#2. [ ... ] The monks sped up the process up for us laowai who have less time, less patience for basics, and a greater need for external markers of our accomplishments.

Matthew Polly

#3. When you are the only laowai in a village of 10,000 Chinese martial artists and you've sat through several dozen films where a white man shouts, "You Chinese dog," before getting his ass kicked, it starts to irritate you. We all need role models.

Matthew Polly

#4. Only those who have tasted the bitterest of the bitter can become people who stand out among others. -Guanchang Xianxing Ji

Matthew Polly

#5. It is only when a person gets into difficulty that one can truly see his heart.

Matthew Polly

#6. This was not uncommon in government-run operations, where a request that someone do their job often induced a catatonic state that might last anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour.

Matthew Polly

#7. [ ... ] it doesn't take much courage to fight when you still believe you can win. What takes real courage is to keep fighting when all hope is gone.

Matthew Polly

#8. The sayers do not know and the knowers do not say.

Matthew Polly

#9. A fight forms a powerful and strange bond between men.

Matthew Polly