179 Quotes by James Clavell

How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable – all at the same time?

You don’t know for certain about God until you’re dead.

All gods bear witness! The Jade Gate and the One-Eyed Monk are truly yin and yang, truly everlasting, truly godlike, both insatiable however much one consumes the other.

So easy now that Elder Sister has explained to her what all young girls in houses are taught – that with care and meticulous acting and tears of pretended pain and fear, and the final modest telltale stains cautiously placed, a girl can, if necessary, be virgin ten times for ten different men.

You live by the lash and you’ll die by it.

Any history book will tell them China always crosses her borders to protect her buffer zones when any invader approaches.

Isn’t man but a blossom taken by wind, and only the mountains and the sea and the stars and this land of the gods everlasting?

I send you my laughter. May Buddha bless thee and thine.

In war and in peace, a good enemy can be more valuable than a good ally.