Nien Cheng Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

#3. If you do it properly, life is art, really.

Caitlin Moran

#4. It must be a really great book because one can read it as a boy in one way, and then re-read it in middle life and get something very different out of it - and that to my mind is one of the best tests.

C.S. Lewis

#5. And likewise I was beginning to see my own fears and desires manifested outside myself, was beginning to see in other people's lives a commentary on my own.

Rachel Cusk

#6. Bad experience is more bearable when you are not the only sufferer.
~pg 95

Nien Cheng

#7. There are so many ways it could have all turned out differently.

Jennifer E. Smith

#8. Ultimate in respectability: not only received back into the ranks of the people but also

Nien Cheng

#9. 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

#10. 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

#11. 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

#12. Italy was a surprise in my life. I went there just to make money and then go back to Israel and study psychology. The arts wasn't something I grew up with or thought I could be part of.

Moran Atias

#13. 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

#14. 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