John C.H. Wu

“To my mind, if the cosmos does not know the significance of life, then it is not God; and if there were no God beyond the cosmos, then all human history would be like dancing to the blind and singing to the deaf; and all noble thought and action would be like kissing a cold statue. I believed in a personal God, not because I wanted to project my personality upon God, but because to deprive Him of this attribute would be making the effect greater than the cause.”
― John C.H. Wu, Beyond East and West

“Similar to this problem of idealism and materialism, but more fundamental still, is the problem of worldliness and otherworldliness. Is life a dream? Or is it real and earnest, as Longfellow would have it? Formerly I used to swing like a pendulum between the two extremes as most of my countrymen seem to do. But now I have gradually come to realize that life is a dream, but that something real and earnest may come out from a dream. And I have learned this from experience. It is thanks to my intensive participation in practical life that although I am by nature a star-gazer, yet I seldom fall into wells. For life, especially in politics, is like tightrope-walking. You have always to maintain your balance. A little slip may cause you to fall. Your superiors, your subordinates, your colleagues, your friends and finally job-seekers are all to be dealt with tactfully and yet with sincerity: with such tactfulness as to satisfy them, and with such sincerity as to satisfy yourself.”
― John C.H. Wu, Beyond East and West