Quotes from Pearl S. Buck

Had she not created even him? Perhaps for that he never forgave her, but hated her and fought her secretly, and dominated her and oppressed her and kept her locked in houses and her feet bound and her waist tied, and forbade her wages and skills and learning, and widowed her when she was dead, and burned her sometimes to ashes, pretending that it was her faithfulness that did it.

It was in those days that I learned to distinguish between the two kinds of people in the world: those who have known inescapable sorrow and those who have not.

He lived in the rich city as alien as a rat in a rich man's house that is fed on scraps thrown away, and hides here and there and is never a part of the real life of the house.

What shall I do? she asked in a small voice. Forget your own self, he said. But all these years, she urged, I have so carefully fulfilled my duty. Always with the thought of your own freedom in your mind, he said. She could not deny it. She sat motionless, her hands folded on the pearl-gray satin of her robe. Direct me, she said at last. Instead of your own freedom, think how you can free others, he said gently. She lifted her head. From yourself, he said still gently.

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.

We must save ourselves by doing what is godlike and we will become godlike.

I am always moved, with grateful wonder, by the goodness of people. For the few who are prying or meanly critical, for the very few who rejoice in the grief of others, there are the thousands who are kind. I have come to believe that the natural human heart is good, and I have observed that this goodness is found in all varieties of people, and that it can and does prevail in spite of other corruptions. This human goodness alone provides hope enough for the world.

They were prisoners, trapped by old ways of life, jailed within the imperial palace. He was no more free than she was. Yet only she could do what she would. If she said she would be Empress, then none could hold her back.

From the stars," she thought, "doubtless all things are seen.

If a superior man undertakes something and tried to lead, He goes astray. But if he follows, he finds guidance. It is favourable to find friends in the West and South, and quiet perseverance brings good fortune.

And as for equality, are the fingers on one hand equal in length? Each has its place.

Hope must come out of what we have, or it is not hope, but a dream.

The gift he had been given was sometimes heavy to bear, the ability always to understand why the other person was as he was. Wounded, yes, but never angry, and there were times when he longed to feel fierce personal anger.

But the important lesson which he taught me was that if one would be happy he must not raise his head above his neighbor's. "He who raises his head above the heads of others," Mr. Kung said, "will sooner or later be decapitated.

there is no such condition in human affairs as absolute truth. There is only truth as people see it, and truth, even in fact, may be kaleidoscopic in its variety. The

All that had been was now no more.

U meni postoji mjesto gdje živim posve sama; tu obnavljam svoja prolje?a koja nikad ne presahnu

Perhaps, Yuan, such laws as this are only keys to unlock a door to a closed garden, and we must throw the key recklessly away and go forth into that garden boldly by imagination—or call it faith

weak? You must learn to take from a person that which is his best and ignore all else.

Why must this happen to me?" To this there could be no answer and there was none. When I knew at last that there could never be an answer, my own resolve shaped into the determination to make meaning out of the meaningless, and so provide the answer, though it was of my own making.

The best thing in the world for each of us is that which we can best do, because it gives us the feeling of being useful. That's happiness.

Love must be taken on the tide, before it ebbs.

Je suis comme un pont fragile, reliant à travers l'infini le passé et le présent. Je serre la main maternelle. Je ne peux pas la laisser échapper, car sans moi ma mère serait seule.

don't know what to tell you," he said slowly. "I have not had time to think much about myself. Wherever I have been—at least until now, I have been mostly alone. The others were always much bigger—much older." He paused to consider himself in the past. "Older in years, that is," he amended. "I've always been too old for myself." She looked at him thoughtfully. "Then you have an old soul.