The mastery of writing is ultimately an aesthetics, and it comes down to whether one can create one's own style.

Beauty is always discovered in the actualities of living.

We Orientals create beauty by generating shadows in places that are nothing special.

Fierce-browed, I coolly defy a thousand pointing fingers; head bowed, I willingly serve as a children's ox.

-- Lu Xun

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.

-- Hermann Hesse

The supreme elegance is to be a good man.

-- Victor Hugo

Brevity is the soul of wit.

-- William Shakespeare

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

-- William Shakespeare

I loved you: love perhaps has not yet faded entirely from my soul.

-- Alexander Pushkin