Wu Cheng'en > Quotes

“Nothing in this world is difficult, but thinking makes it seem so. Where there is true will, there is always a way.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: A Journey to the West

“Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted"

- Sylvia Plath's epitaph (from Wu Cheng'en's novel Journey to the West aka. Monkey, translated by Arthur Waley)”
― Wu Cheng'en

“A team of horses cannot overtake a word that has left the mouth.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey

“If you want to have a future, don't do anything with no future in it.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West

“The boatman then gently guided the raft across. They saw a dead body floating. At the sight of this, the Master was greatly frightened. But Sun smiled and said, "Master do not be alarmed! That corpse is none other than your own." Zhu Bajie said, "It is you, it is you!" Sha the Monk clapped his hands, and also said, "It is you, it is you!" The boatman also remarked "It was yours, I congratulate you." The three pilgrims congratulated him, and they quietly crossed over the Could Ferry in safety. The Master's shape was changed, and he jumped ashore on the other side with a very light body.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“The earth is black in front of the cliff, and no orchids grow.
Creepers crawl in the brown mud by the path.
Where did the birds of yesterday fly?
To what other mountain did the animals go?
Leopards and pythons dislike this ruined spot;
Cranes and snakes avoid the desolation.
My criminal thoughts of those days past
Brought on the disaster of today.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“After Supper the Master dismissed all except Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha the Monk. He took them out with him and said, "Look at that wonderful moolight. It makes me long for the time when I can return home.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“What you must do," said Monkey, "is lure the monster from its hiding place, but be certain it is a fight you can survive.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“Hero is he alone who vies with powers supreme!”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“If a man has been your teacher for a day, you should treat him as your father for the rest of his life.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West

“With passions stilled and one's nature firm, all destinies are in harmony; When the full moon of contemplation is reached you will be pure.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West

“I was very fond of strange stories when I was a child. In my village-school days, I used to buy stealthily popular novels and historical recitals. Fearing that my father and my teacher might punish me for this and rob me of these treasures, I carefully hid them in secret places where I could enjoy them unmolested. As I grew older, my love for strange stories became even stronger, and I learned of things stranger than what I had read in my childhood. When I was in my thirties, my memory was full of these stories accumulated through years of eager seeking. l have always admired such writers of the T'ang Dynasty as Tuan Ch'eng-shih [author of the Yu-yang tsa-tsu] and Niu Sheng [author of the Hsuan-kuai lu]. Who wrote short stories so excellent in portrayal of men and description of things. I often had the ambition to write a book (of stories) which might be compared with theirs. But I was too lazy to write, and as my laziness persisted, I gradually forgot most of the stories which I had learned. Now only these few stories, less than a score, have survived and have so successfully battled against my laziness that they are at last written down. Hence this Book of Monsters. I have sometimes laughingly said to myself that it is not I who have found these ghosts and monsters, but they, the monstrosities themselves, which have found me! ... Although my book is called a book or monsters, it is not confined to them: it also records the strange things of the human world and sometimes conveys a little bit of moral lesson.”
― Wu Cheng'en

“Wife indeed!" laughed Monkey. "You haven't got a wife now. There are some sorts of Taoists that are family men; but who ever heard of a Buddhist priest calmly talking about his 'wife'?”
― Cheng-en Wu, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“Never pour the Elixir of Life as if it were an ordinary liquid. He who entrusts the secret of the dark forces to unworthy ears is making his jaws do unnecessary work and talks his tongue dry to no purpose.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“There is no water like the water out of your own well.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“The adept does not show himself;     He who shows himself’s no adept.”
― Wu Cheng'en, The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 4

“Monkey now produced his staff and the two of them did their best to kill each other, like the affectionate in-laws they were.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey King: Journey to the West

“Wherever you go," said the Patriarch, "I'm convinced you'll come to no good. So remember, when you get into trouble, I absolutely forbid you to say that you are my disciple.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“When man has a virtuous thought,     Heaven will grant him support.”
― Wu Cheng'en, The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 4

“The wide earth may harbor vicious affairs,     But high Heaven will a good man vindicate.     Footloose they’re safe on Tathāgata’s way,     Certain to reach Mount Spirit’s paradise gate.”
― Wu Cheng'en, The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 4

“Although the book is exceedingly strange, expending undoubtedly several hundred thousand words [an astonishingly accurate word count], but its general importance may be stated in one sentence: it is only about the retrieving or releasing one’s mind (). For whether we folks act like demons and become Buddha are all dependent on this mind.”
― Wu Cheng'en, The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“But “a single strand does not make a thread nor can one hand clap.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: Folk Novel of China

“The hundred flavors of rare dainties     Are no more once you’ve eaten your fill.     You may accumulate private savings     But not in your stomach private hoardings!”
― Wu Cheng'en, The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 4

“Don’t go away! Have a taste of old Monkey’s rod!”
― Wu Cheng'en, The Journey to the West, Volume 1

“A bird in the hand is worth three in the Bush.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“After following it for nearly two miles he came across two she-monsters drawing water from a well. How did he know that they were monsters? Each of them had on her head an extremely unfashionable hair-style held up by bamboo slivers that stood one foot two or three inches high.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West, 3-Volume Set (I, II & III)

“Each of them also had a white lacquered tablet hanging on his belt; on one was the inscription Shifty-and-Freaky, and on the other, Freaky-and-Shifty.”
― Wu Cheng'en, The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 4

“Every single unfortunate event was listed: from the tragedy of Tripitaka’s parents to acquiring the three disciples, being captured multiple times, abducted by wind, tied up, impregnated, and married, as well as coming very close to being lacquered, minced, sautéed, steamed, pickled, cured, liquefied, and mated with various fiends.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey King: Journey to the West

“To count a few gulls makes the journey happy.
In the reedy bend, under the willow bank,
My wife and children smile with me.
The moment I fall asleep, wind and waves are quiet;
No glory, no disgrace, and not a single worry.”
― Wu Cheng-en

“音，”
― Wu Cheng'en, 西游记