Cho Zen Quotes

Your amoral ingenuity in the pursuit of your interest is perfectly shocking,” said Zacharias severely. “Yes, isn’t it?” said Prunella, pleased.

But that was the trouble with children, Sir Stephen reflected. They were confoundedly liable to pattern themselves upon one’s conduct, when one would rather they simply did what they were told.

Maybe that was what true love meant: a bitterness that stayed on the tongue when everything else faded.

But one may like someone enough to kiss them without liking them enough to confide in them. The two are quite different emotions.

Are you going? What shall you wear?" "I shall go in what I am standing in," said Mak Genggang. "A witch is always appropriate whatever her attire.

Why, all the greatest magic comes down to blood," said Mak Genggang. "And who knows blood better than a woman?

Goodbye," said Siew Tsin. "See you next time," said Lady Meng, more accurately. "Will you remember me when I come again?" "Of course," said Lady Meng. "I miss you every time.

A female may be poor or delicate or a spinster, but it does seem ill-advised of Miss Liddiard to combine all three.

Prunella took to the ballrooms of London in the spirit of ruthless calculation of a general entering a battlefield.

You are having a baby,' he said. 'I certainly hope it turns out to be a baby,' I agreed.

[A] life passed amid the feuds and rivalries of a girls' school had left Prunella not wholly unprepared for battle.

I should advise you not to stop there, but set fire to his house, too, and sell his children to pirates. That is the only way he will learn

Since the decision to become a parent is invariably self-interested, it is my belief that a parent's obligation is to the child, and the child's obligation is to itself.

But a woman should not marry where there is no respect. Respect is the most important thing.

She can’t be a medium,” said Mom. “She graduated from Harvard!

What a thing a bad death was. It made a mythology that caught up in its wake old trees and young women alike, the violence of it reverberating through the years.

You can bargain with anybody, spirit or human. All you need to know is what do they want and what are they scared of. That's all.

Prunella had once thought life in London would be all flirting and balls and dresses, hitting attentive suitors on the shoulder with a fan, and breakfasting late upon bowls of chocolate. She sighed now for her naïveté. Little had she known life in London was in fact all hexes and murder and thaumaturgical politics, and she would always be rising early for some reason or other!

Resignation to unhappiness didn't come naturally—she had to learn it.

Hell was hot and full of unkind people in a hurry; there was far too much red tape; and the bureaucrats were all shockingly corrupt.

You cannot stay rich in times like these without eating sin.

The aunts’ conception of the right to privacy went far enough to allow you to close the toilet door when you were peeing, but no further.

... it is strange to know you would be cast off by the people who greet you so warmly, if they knew the whole truth about you.

Shameless, impudent, meddling females, who presumed to set at naught the Society’s prohibition on women’s magic, and duped the common people with their potions and cantrips!

It is a mother's duty to teach her daughters about the uses of blood, particularly a magical daughter.

The first time she saw the boy across the classroom, Ah Lee knew she was in love because she tasted durian on her tongue.

I brought seaweed snacks from home,' chimed in another kid. "Seaweed got iron, right?" 'I don't think the teachers meant that kind of iron,' said Hui Ann.

Siew Tsin had not given much thought to what happened in the afterlife until the afterlife happened to her.

She had still had the loved child's belief that it would not be allowed for anything too bad to happen to her.

He was a typical specimen of the younger son in avid pursuit of mediocrity with which the Theurgist’s teemed:

I might go anywhere and do any magic I pleased if I were Peter, not Prunella.

Rebirth entailed a true death, the severing of one's memory and the loss of one's self.

This time, let us hope you will get to be old," she said. "It is a great suffering to know youth only.

She was a walking nothing—a hole in the universe, perfect for letting the dead through.

It figured that she'd avoided getting nagged to go to law school, only to get nagged to become a vessel for the dead.

she was attempting to deploy enchantments of her own — the fiancé, the ordinary hobbies and the sensible office job were so many sigils to ward off chaos. It was not an ineffective magic. It worked

Zacharias’s study bore the marks of his predecessors, whose taste had run decidedly stoicheiotical. They had had a fondness for skulls with burning lights in their eye sockets, crystal balls in which mysterious shapes came and went, and dark velvet window curtains traced with obscure runes.

Ah Ma doesn’t want a girl as her medium,” said Jess. “She says they’re useless. Every month you have to take a break and can’t do anything for a few days.” “Ma, you must be more modern.” Ah Ku was talking directly to his mother, as though Jess wasn’t even there. “Nowadays, men and women, there’s not much difference. A boy who is not reliable is useless every day of the month. Isn’t it better to have a reliable girl?

It was not a world Siew Tsin would have chosen to live in. But she did not want to be reborn, either, anymore than Junsheng did, anymore than all the other spirits showering gold and favours on hell officials so that they could stay where they were. Rebirth entailed a true death, the severing of one's memory and the loss of one's self.

You like the gentleman, then?" said Muna. "I don't dislike him," said Henrietta unpromisingly. [...] "I don't dislike cabbage," Muna found herself saying, "but I should not consider marrying it. Not disliking seems a poor foundation for future happiness.

What are acquaintance for, if not to supply the pleasures of gossip?

Whether I'm a good wife doesn't have anything to do with what he was like.

Love was like swallowing a cili padi whole.

I can speak four dialects, but none of them is fairy language.

Other dragons are bastards. I moved out of my mother's cave after my mother tried to rip my guts out. Granted, I had tried to steal her Tiara of Clairvoyance.

I have always admired your refusal, in the pursuit of your convictions, ever to be constrained by considerations of humanity—much less of ordinary good manners.

Zacharias, my dear, I do not believe I am misled by partiality when I say you are impossible to miss in this room,” said Lady Wythe.

She flung the door open with a flourish, revealing a scene of utter pandemonium.

She reached for power and it came to her hand, flowing into her smoothly—the destructive power of the unforgetful dead.

Their approach to religion was to leave the gods alone, in the hope the gods would return the favour.

She was a hole punched out of a sane world, a channel for the sublime - or the horrific. Through her, the unthinkable was made real.

When the gods talk to you, you listed.

A boy who is not reliable is useless every day of the month. Isn’t it better to have a reliable girl?

What a mother hen I am become!” he said soberly. “If I were my old self I should not start at every shadow, and be alarmed when you stumble, but one’s anxiety rises in proportion to one’s incapacity to do anything about it.

The woman leant forward, her eyes flashing, a smile both triumphant and tender curving her mouth. "You are *my* daughter," she said. "Can there be any doubt that you will be brilliant -- audacious -- and free?" The vision disappeared. She had been so vital, so overflowing with life and energy, that her going seemed to leave the room dark.

You can't ever tell people you think you are pretty. Even if you are pretty you have to flutter and be modest. Fortunately here nobody thinks I am pretty, so my thinking I am pretty is almost an act of defiance; it makes me feel quite noble.

How could you die and not be old enough to hear about premarital sex? How could you die and still not be allowed to fall in love or be honest? Surely not everything had to wait for university and a good job. Passion and truth had to trump even those things.

Magic ran in the family. Even her mother's second cousin, who was adopted, did small spells on the side. She sold these from a stall in Kota Bharu. Her main wares were various types of fruit fried in batter, but if you bought five pisang or cempedak goreng, she threw in a jampi for free.

One might have thought you had never met my aunt Georgiana,” said Rollo, with the steeliness of despair. “She is the one with the false curls and glowing eyes and smoke rising from her jaws. Do not you recollect her?” “She did strike me as possessing unusual force of character,” admitted Damerell.

He looked forlorn, but also a little annoyed that she wasn’t letting him restore his self - image as a good person. It gave Jess a petty pleasure, but it was also a reminder that she needed not to push it. Sherng feeling he owed her something was good, but it could morph all too easily into him resenting her for not forgiving the debt.

The British are a peculiar race. My grandfather was transported to Malaya because they needed tin, and yet I’ve never once met a Briton to whom the thought had occurred that perhaps I spoke English because I am from one of their colonies. It is as if I were a piece of chess in a game played by people who never look down at their fingers.

He would gaze at her with intrigued longan seed eyes.

I thought: if I die, I hope I get reincarnated into a mosquito so I can bite that fucker kau-kau.

For a celebrity he has an awful excess of sensibility, and is very anxious about one's opinion of him. Perhaps it comes of being an artist.

I felt like a fox backed into a corner, with the yelping of the hounds coming closer.

When I am old I shall become an itinerant poet and wear a straw hat and never worry about love again.   Tuesday,

Her opinion is that she did not struggle her way to the august age of forty-three only to have the dignity accorded to her years snatched away from her.

She has a passionate hunger for youth.

It is dreadful when people are good-looking and pay attention to you.

prolix

Affection there had always been between them, whatever their disagreements—and there had been more of these than Zacharias had permitted Sir Stephen to know.

The damnable thing about Damerell, thought Zacharias, was that he never failed to observe precisely what you would conceal.

But Prunella would never dream of allowing conscience to prevent her from helping her friends.

Maybe that was what true love meant: a bitterness that stayed on the tongue when everything else had faded.

You’re like Ah Ma, she said. You’re clever at being angry.

I shall lay the path for you. There is no reason you should run into any trouble, provided you are sensible.” “It sounds perfectly straightforward,” said Sakti, who had never been sensible in her life.

My mother always told me, don't trust men who don't respect boundaries,' said Fairuz. 'Bullet tu, either he doesn't know or he doesn't care what is boundaries. Men like that is dangerous.' Fairuz was only half right, though Sham. It wasn't just men who didn't understand boundaries that were the problem. What made them dangerous was the people who found their lack of understanding funny, endearing, normal. The danger lay in everyone else.

Her bulk seemed to fill the world, blocking out the horizon and casting a shadow over the magicians huddled on the wall. The enchantment appeared to encompass everything upon her person, for as she grew, so did the fronds of seaweed draped over her, and the pretty amber pendant on her breast expanded till it was itself the height and breadth of a grown man. "Midsommer!" roared Lord Burrow. "Look to your wife!" "He can hardly miss her", remarked Prunella.

Có một thi sĩ làm thơ hô hào những nhà sáng tác, những ca sĩ từ bỏ lối sáng tác và ca hát đau thương đứt ruột. Ông ta viết những câu này, tôi còn nhớ: Đừng kể nữa những mảnh tình tan tác, Hãy đứng lên, nhạc sĩ, với tôi đi! Tôi ghét anh ưa giọng hát sầu bi, Và tung mãi những tâm hồn thường trụy lạc. Hãy đứng dậy! Vứt chiếc cầm áo não! Tôi cần nghe những khúc nhạc rất hùng, Thét ngựa lòng phi mãi chẳng chồn chân, Sáng như gươm tuốt, mạnh như luồng bão. Ôi nhạc sĩ! Thật anh người thậm tệ! Quan hoài chi những khúc hát mê ly, Những câu ca không đẹp lại không thi Của kỹ nữ vọc cuộc đời ê trệ? Hãy cung kính nhượng những người tuổi tác, Những bản đàn nhịp hát thiếu tinh thần. Hãy ra xem sõng vỗ với mây vần, Và sáng chể cho tôi vài điệu khác. Nếu chúng ta cứ hát những bài khóc gió than mây và cứ nghe những bài độc huyền thì có thể ‘vận cái rủi’ vào số mạng của mình, tưới tẩm những hạt giống đau buồn, điều đó không tốt.

It looked like all forest spirits—tall, pointy ears, big smile. It didn't look male or female. Forest spirits don't have this concept. They say male or female has no meaning. They don't like to follow rules. Like I said, they are very lazy.

Signs and portents; a sense of the world of seen things as shifting sands concealing a hidden core of marvels and terrors … he’d thought he’d left all of that behind long ago. But some forms of folly, like love and religion, were like lalang. Once established, they were almost impossible to eradicate.

Nobody talks about it. It’s not that kind of war.” “What kind of war is it, then?” said Guet Imm. She looked like she wanted to hit Tet Sang. “A secret war? I’ve never heard of such a thing!” “Yes,” said Tet Sang. “Open death, open atrocity, open persecution. But a silent war. It’s safer to be silent in these times.

Then there was the incident with the uncle with the Rolex. It wasn’t like Jess was able to distinguish a Rolex from any other watch; she only knew the uncle had a Rolex because he talked to Kor Tiao about it for the entire duration of his visit. Jess hadn’t known it was possible to have so many feelings about watches.

The tabloids wanted to know whether the dragon was receiving benefits. The gossip magazines claimed to have found a woman who was bearing the dragon's baby. The fashion magazines did spreads on draconian style. This apparently consisted of gaunt models with sunken eyes, swathed in clouds of chiffon and arranged in awkwardly erotic positions on piles of gold coins.

My dear young lady!” This manner of address would have seemed impertinent in any other gentleman of Mr. Wythe’s youth and handsomeness. But his manner possessed such a splendid unconsciousness of these attributes—he spoke so much like a man who believed himself over the hill, and beyond all flirtations—that Prunella was overtaken by an irresistible fit of the giggles.

I am reading a terrible sententious book called The Wedding of Herbert Mimnaugh. Firstly, what sort of a name is Herbert and why would a parent with any trace of natural affection wish to afflict their child with such a name? Herbert's parents do not feature prominently in the book when this choice alone makes it obvious that they are the most interesting people in it.

The spirit and its chosen one bind their ankles together with red thread. They may take each other's hands and smile at each other. When they walk down the bridge into the world of the living, they know it won't be the last time they see one another. The red thread is better than a promise —it's a guarantee. It means they'll meet again in the next life. It means they'll love each other there, too.

I think US/UK genre has become more open to “diverse” writers and writing; there’s a genuine interest in reading work from countries outside the US/UK and hearing voices that have been historically shut out, but at the same time, people are quite lazy. That sounds harsh, but I include myself in it — your tastes are shaped by what you’ve read and watched before, and it takes a little effort to understand stories that use a different voice, that follow different storytelling conventions, that are trying to subvert the dominant paradigm. There’s a quite large group of people who are “yay diversity” in theory, but I think the number of people who have then said to themselves, “OK, if I’m committed to this, I need to start reading outside my comfort zone and making an effort” is maybe a little smaller.

The caterpillars were a problem, however. Fat, fuzzy and complacent, they sat upon his vegetables in veritable hordes, ignoring him until he addressed one directly. “Good morning, sir,” he said. The caterpillar paused the busy movement of its jaws to reply: “Pleasant weather, this, eh?” It was an ideal summer’s day. The skies stretched out in endless blue overhead, unmarred by a single wisp of cloud; the fresh scent of greenery and earth rose into the nostrils, imparting a lively pleasure in being alive and outdoors. “You seem troubled, sir, if you don’t mind me saying so,” said the caterpillar. Zacharias experienced a brief internal struggle, but decided upon candour.

The statement brought up the old anger and confusion, followed by the accustomed guilt, that he should be so ungrateful as to resent the man who had rescued him from bondage. And yet he did resent Sir Stephen, even now.

What’s wrong with your leg?” he said. But now he could see the state of her feet—blistered and rubbed raw from walking. She shifted away from Tet Sang, bending to pat her feet dry. A wince briefly displaced her frown. “You should call Ah Boon to look at that,” said Tet Sang, embarrassed. “He can give you medicine. He used to look after people’s cows.

Do you have any notion who the author is?” Said Zachariah, striving to keep his voice even. “You rejoice in such a number of enemies it would be difficult to trace this delightful confection to any one of them,” said Damerell.

He had envisaged himself kneeling upon the earth, digging in the soil, making every day small tangible contributions to flourishing.

stoicheiotical.

As Zacharias approached his conveyance, the scope of the undertaking to which he had agreed began to dawn upon him. The chaise that was to bear him and Prunella to Fobdown Purlieu was indeed waiting. It was doubtful whether it was capable of doing anything else. Turrill was a good-humoured man on the whole, whose anxieties about driving the Sorcerer Royal had been eased by Mr. Wythe’s being as pleasant-spoken and openhanded a gentleman as he had ever met (“Even if he is black as coal, I am sure that is none of his fault, and it would be a dull world if God had cut us all from the same pattern”). It was no wonder he felt hardly used upon this occasion, however, and Zacharias was not surprised to be addressed in terms of reproach. “You hadn’t ought to have done it, sir,” said the coachman. “You may turn me into a frog for it, but I must speak my mind, and I say you hadn’t ought to have done it. If I had not given satisfaction, you had only to say the word and I should have hopped to it, not wishing to offend any gentleman of such a liberal disposition as yourself, and not being such a fool as to desire to vex a sorcerer besides. There was no call to go a-magicking the chaise—and where you got the squashes for it out of season, I am sure I don’t know.” “Neither do I,” said Zacharias, bending down to examine what had previously been a wheel, and was now an enormous squash.

Gustavo Solivellas dice: "El obstáculo es el camino" (Proverbio Zen)

Nobody talks about it. It’s not that kind of war.” “What kind of war is it, then?” said Guet Imm. She looked like she wanted to hit Tet Sang. “A secret war? I’ve never heard of such a thing!” “Yes,” said Tet Sang. “Open death, open atrocity, open persecution. But a silent war. It’s safer to be silent in these times.

I left because I knew we would be the end of each other if I stayed," she [Ling'en] said. "We were always too busy trying to save the other from becoming what we did not like. (...)

Zacharias was never so ill-bred as to say, “I told you so,” but he thought it very loudly.

Here is a secret Chang E knew, though her mother didn't. Past a certain point, you stop being able to go home. At this point, when you have got this far from where you were, the thread snaps. The narrative breaks. And you are forced, pastless, to invent yourself anew. At a certain point, this stops being sad -- but who knows if any human has ever reached that point?