"Chinese people love compromise. If you say to them, "This room is too dark, we must have a window made," they will all oppose you. But if you say, "Let's take off the roof," they will compromise with you and say "Let's have a window."

“We have hereafter only two roads to choose: one is to embrace the ancient literature and die, the other is to forsake the ancient literature and live.”

“When you talk with famous scholars, the best thing is to pretend that occasionally you do not quite understand them. If you understand too little, you will be despised; if you understand too much, you will be disliked; if you just fail occasionally to understand them you will suit each other very well.”

“I used to think that a man was sentenced to death or imprisonment because he was guilty; now I know that he is found guilty because he is disliked.”

“The literature of former days is like watching a fire from across the water; in present-day literature, the author himself is being scorched by the fire and he is bound to feel it deeply, and when he begins to feel it deeply, he is bound to take part in the social struggle.”

“Rather than worship Confucius and Kuan Kung, one should worship Darwin and Ibsen.”

“Savage as a lion, timid as a rabbit, crafty as a fox...”