"The shengren is the single most important concept in Chinese history."

Thorsten J. Pattberg See all quotes by Thorsten J. Pattberg →

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“Honesty and facts are almost irrelevant. Getting attention is key, causing offence is desirable, and provoking a physical response is the jackpot.”

“Any sage can do philosophy, but not every philosopher is a sage.”

“Chinese holiday names are not dead yet, although I would hardly call them alive either: they are truly undead vocabularies.”

“Harvard has de facto become a Chinese outpost. -- Oh, boy, do the Chinese love Harvard! , China Daily, Beijing”

“As a rule, for any society that is single-mindedly interested in its own promotion and thus survival, it would have to have a h uge population and it would have to send its people out, not letting too many others in.”

“Yes, I am vulgar and fearless, and loudly indifferent to convention and limitation.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Where long series of incarnations have been followed, it has been found that some individuals progress from sub-race to sub-race very regularly, whereas others are more erratic, taking repeated incarn…"

— Annie Besant

Politics1847–1933

#history

"The ground breaking production of the company, and the point at which the cross-cultural casting began to bite, was Brecht’s anti-war play Mother Courage. Just one comment in a review by critic Malcol…"

— Angelique Rockas

Entertainment1951

#history

"History is of two kinds—there is the official history taught in schools, a lying compilation ad usum delphini; and there is the secret history which deals with the real causes of events—a scandalous c…"

— Honoré de Balzac

journalism1799–1850

#education

"It is a fact that nine-tenths of the HUMAN RACE never have and never will think for themselves, about anything. Whether it's music or Reaganomics, say, almost everybody prefers to sit and wait till so…"

— Lester Bangs

Music1948–1982

#writing