Quotes from The Journey to the West, Volume 1

Wu Cheng'en ·  544 pages

Rating: (896 votes)


“Treasure a handful of dirt from your home,      But love not ten thousand taels of foreign gold.”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1


“She also bit off a little toe from the child’s left foot to establish a mark of his identity.”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1


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


“in my opinion those who strive for fame will lose their lives on account of fame; those who live in quest of fortune will perish because of riches; those who have titles sleep embracing a tiger; and those who receive official favors walk with snakes in their sleeves.”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1


“Canberra and Chicago, but it also allowed us to enjoy several cherished meetings with Professor Liu Ts’un-yan before his passing a few months later. My indebtedness to Professor Liu’s scholarship should be apparent in the introduction”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1



“In Buddhism, the eight emblems would refer to the eight marks of good fortune on the sole of Buddha’s foot—wheel, conch shell, umbrella, canopy, lots flower, jar, pair of fishes, and mystic signs—which, in turn, were symbols of the organs in Buddha’s body.”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1


“permission. When I began work on the translation long ago, it was an early and ready decision to dedicate the first volume to my wife and our only”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1


“those who have titles sleep embracing a tiger;”
― Wu Cheng'en, quote from The Journey to the West, Volume 1


About the author

Wu Cheng'en
Born place: in Lianshui, Jiangsu, China
Born date October 2, 1505
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter who does not in some measure behold it here by faith.”
― John Owen, quote from The Glory of Christ


“One store owner said he was going to leave a dictionary on a public bench so the vandals could at least spell the obscenities correctly. It”
― Anne Bishop, quote from Marked in Flesh


“What is our life: (Pause.) it’s looking forward or it’s looking back. And that’s our life. That’s it. Where is the moment?”
― David Mamet, quote from Glengarry Glen Ross


“غيري يكتب كما يتكلم ، و أنا أكتب كما ألتزم الصمت”
― Amin Maalouf, quote from Balthasar's Odyssey


Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes

First, her tippet made of tulle,
easily lifted off her shoulders and laid
on the back of a wooden chair.

And her bonnet,
the bow undone with a light forward pull.

Then the long white dress, a more
complicated matter with mother-of-pearl
buttons down the back,
so tiny and numerous that it takes forever
before my hands can part the fabric,
like a swimmer’s dividing water,
and slip inside.

You will want to know
that she was standing
by an open window in an upstairs bedroom,
motionless, a little wide-eyed,
looking out at the orchard below,
the white dress puddled at her feet
on the wide-board, hardwood floor.

The complexity of women’s undergarments
in nineteenth-century America
is not to be waved off,
and I proceeded like a polar explorer
through clips, clasps, and moorings,
catches, straps, and whalebone stays,
sailing toward the iceberg of her nakedness.

Later, I wrote in a notebook
it was like riding a swan into the night,
but, of course, I cannot tell you everything—
the way she closed her eyes to the orchard,
how her hair tumbled free of its pins,
how there were sudden dashes
whenever we spoke.

What I can tell you is
it was terribly quiet in Amherst
that Sabbath afternoon,
nothing but a carriage passing the house,
a fly buzzing in a windowpane.

So I could plainly hear her inhale
when I undid the very top
hook-and-eye fastener of her corset

and I could hear her sigh when finally it was unloosed,
the way some readers sigh when they realize
that Hope has feathers,
that Reason is a plank,
that Life is a loaded gun
that looks right at you with a yellow eye.”
― Billy Collins, quote from Picnic, Lightning


Interesting books

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems
(17.2K)
The Love Song of J....
by T.S. Eliot
Twenties Girl
(133.2K)
Twenties Girl
by Sophie Kinsella
Fullmetal Alchemist, Volume 1
(99.4K)
Fullmetal Alchemist,...
by Hiromu Arakawa
Trinity
(17.7K)
Trinity
by Leon Uris
Daddy-Long-Legs
(31.3K)
Daddy-Long-Legs
by Jean Webster
Pandora
(38.3K)
Pandora
by Anne Rice

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.