[Moral conflicts are] an intrinsic, irremovable element in human life... These collisions of values are of the essence of what they are and what we are.

[Nietzsche's] personal feelings initiate him into those of the criminal ... in general all creative originality, all artist nature in the broadest sense of the word, does the same... an artist must approach his work in the spirit of the criminal about to commit a crime.

[Nietzsche] had more penetrating knowledge of himself than any other man who ever lived or ever was likely to live.

[on] the subjects of money and commerce, Smith's Wealth of Nations is the best book to be read

[Pearl Buck] was a spokesman on all sorts of issues: freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the adoptability of disadvantaged children, the future of China, especially the battle for women's rights, for education. If you followed in her trail, as I did, you were put in touch with almost every major movement in the United States — intellectual, social, and political.

[People] don’t change, they unmask themselves.

[Pindar’s poetry is like] A river bursting its banks and rushing down a mountain with uncontrollable momentum, rain-saturated, churning, and chanting thunder.

[Reading Proclus] I am filled with hilarity and spring, my heart dances, my sight is quickened, I behold shining relations between all beings, and am impelled to write and almost to sing.

[Recipe for a rising-sun world]: Take twenty sexually satisfied couples and their offspring; add science, intuition and humor in equal quantities; steep in Tantrik Buddhism and simmer indefinitely in an open pan in the open air over a brisk flame of affection.

[Recipe for a setting-sun world]: Take one sexually inept wage-slave, one dissatisfied female, two or (if preferred) three small television-addicts; marinate in a mixture of Freudism and dilute Christianity; then bottle up tightly in a four-room flat and stew for fifteen years in their own juice.

[religion is] the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto.

[science is] the greatest body of uncriticized dogma we have today

[Shakespeare] became William the Conqueror to all the dramatists of his time, and has ruled the English-speaking world ever since. His rich and riotous energy was the source of his genius and his faults; it brought him the depth and passion of his plays, and it brought him twins and an early death.

[Sim Qian] authored along with his father—Sima Tan—the first comprehensive history of China. His biography of Lao Tzu constitutes the earliest known record of the Taoist patriarch.

[Socrates] was the perfect Orphic saint... a man very sure of himself, high-minded, indifferent to worldly success, believing that he is guided by a divine voice, and persuaded that clear thinking is the most important requisite for right living.

[Su Che], his father, and his brother are counted among the 8 great prose writers of the Tang and Sung dynasties. Although his commentary reflects his own neo-Confucian sympathies, it is also treasure by Buddhists and Taoists.

[Taoism is] the straightest, most logical explanation as yet advanced for the continuance of life, the most logical use yet advised for enjoying it.

[Taoists] not exalting worthy men of superior talent and virtue is directly opposed to that of the Confucianists who honor them

[The Tintin success] is like a flowing stream, but what is its nature?… That’s something I am still asking myself without finding an answer.

[The child's] great task is freeing himself from the parents... only after this detachment is accomplished can he cease to be a child and so become a member of the social community.