Adeline Yen Mah > Quotes

“Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“I read because I have to. It drives everything else from my mind. It lets me escape to find other world.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“But you can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Transcend your abuse and transform it into a source of courage, creativity and compassion.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Never get involved. That's my motto. I hurt no one. And no one can hurt me.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Though life has to be lived forward, it can only be understood backwards”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Revenge is not worthy of you. If you concentrate on revenge, you will keep those wounds fresh that would otherwise have healed.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society: A Daring WWII Spy Adventure About Finding Courage and Destiny for Kids

“You may be right in believing that if you study hard, one day you might become fluent in English. But you will still look Chinese, and when people meet you, they’ll see a Chinese girl no matter how well you speak English. You’ll always be expected to know Chinese, and if you don’t, I’m afraid they will not respect you as much.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Don't trust anyone. Be a cold fish. I hurt no one. And no one can hurt me.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Falling Leaves

“You have your whole life ahead of you. Be smart. Study hard and be independent. I'm afraid the chances of your getting a dowry are slim. You must rely on yourself. No matter what else people may steal from you, they will never be able to take away your knowledge. The world is changing. You must make your own life outside this home.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Falling Leaves

“People with yuan fen are destined to like one another;
Friendship develops even if a thousand miles apart.
But should yuan fen be absent between two individuals,
They will remain strangers despite sitting face-to-face”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society: A Daring WWII Spy Adventure About Finding Courage and Destiny for Kids

“keep in mind that whenever you are in a crisis, you are in the midst of danger as well as oportunity.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“The future belongs to you. Should anyone insult you, tell yourself this: I am a child of destiny who will unite East and West and change the world.”
― Adeline Yen Mah

“At the age of three my grand aunt proclaimed her independence by categorically refusing to have her feet bound, resolutely tearing off the bandages as fast as they were applied.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Falling Leaves

“Suen Le! (it means, "Let it be.”
― Adeline Yen Mah

“No matter what else people may steal from you, they will never be able to take away your knowledge.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Falling Leaves

“That’s exactly what I’ll do, I thought to myself. After dinner, I’m going to ask Big
Brother to teach me how to read this map. With Aunt Baba still in Tianjin, there’s
obviously nobody looking out for me. I’ll just have to find my own way.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Create your own destiny!”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Day after day, anxiety spun its web around my thoughts and spread to all corners of my heart.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“The way I see it, the nineteenth century was a British century. The twenthieth century is an American century. I predict that the twenty-first century will be a Chinese century. The pendulum of history will swing from the ying ashes brought by the Cultural Revolution to the yang pheonix arising from its wreckage.
Aunt Baba, pg 226. Year 1979”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Falling Leaves

“I often think of life as a deposit of time. We are each allocated so many years, just like a fixed sum in a bank. When twenty-four hours have passed I have spent one more day. I read in the People's Daily that the average life expectancy for a Chinese woman is seventy-two. I am already seventy-four years old. I spent all my deposits two years ago and am on bonus time. Every day is already a gift. What is there to complain of?”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Falling Leaves

“You can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Keep in mind that whenever you are in a crisis, you are in the midst of danger as well as opportunity.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Remember, the best cure for worry is to do something positive. That’s because fear is endless and formless, whereas even the worst outcome has an ending.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society: A Daring WWII Spy Adventure About Finding Courage and Destiny for Kids

“She was bedridden falling a fall which broke her hip. X-rays showed that she had cancer of the colon which had already spreed. To my surprise I found her cheerful and free of pain, perhaps because of the small doses of morphine she was being given. She was surrounded by neighbours and friends who congregated at her bedside day and night. In this cosy, noisy, gregarious world of the "all-chinese" sickbed, so different from the stark, sterile solitude of the American hospital room, her life had assumed the astounding quality of a continuous farewell party.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Falling Leaves

“I knew that I was the least-loved child because I was a girl and because my mother had died giving birth to me.”
― Adeline Yen Mah , Falling Leaves

“Mother Teresa once said, "Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted are the greatest poverty." To this I will add: Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.”
― Adeline Yen Mah

“Alcenith Crawford (a divorced ophthalmologist): "We women doctors have un-happy marriages because in our minds we are the superstars of our families. Having survived the hardship of medical school we expect to reap our rewards at home. We had to assert ourselves against all odds and when we finally graduate there are few shrinking violets amongst us. It takes a special man to be able to cope. Men like to feel important and be the undisputed head of the family. A man does not enjoy waiting for his wife while she performs life-saving operations. He expects her and their children to revolve around his needs, not the other way. But we have become accustomed to giving orders in hospitals and having them obeyed. Once home, it's difficult to adjust. Moreover, we often earn more than our husbands. It takes a generous and exceptional man to forgive all that.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Falling Leaves

“quickly pretended disappointment. We hailed a taxi and squeezed in with all our luggage. Aunt Reine”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“To celebrate his prosperity, fellow employees and friends urged him to take a young concubine to "serve him". Even Ye Ye's boss, the London-educated K. C. Li, jokingly volunteered to "give" him a couple of girls with his bonus. Ye Ye reported all this in a matter-of-fact way in a letter to his wife, adding touchingly that he was a "one-woman man".”
― Adeline Yen Mah