Ping Tesoro

“It wasn't the same. I'm pretty good at making the best of things, but it wasn't the same.”
― Lois Lowry, A Summer to Die

“Thus on 12 February 1912, Empress Longyu put her name to the Decree of Abdication, which brought the Great Qing, which had ruled for 268 years, to its end, along with more than 2,000 years of absolute monarchy in China. It was Empress Longyu who decreed: 'On behalf of the emperor, I transfer the right to rule to the whole country, which will now be a constitutional Republic.' This 'Great Republic of China will comprise the entire territory of the Qing empire as inhabited by the five ethnic groups, the Manchu, Han, Mongol, Hui and Tibetan'. She was placed in this historic role by Cixi. Republicanism was not what Empress Dowager Cixi had hoped for, but it was what she would accept, as it shared the same goal as her wished-for parliamentary monarchy: that the future of China belonged to the Chinese people.”
― Jung Chang, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China

“I wish I could go out and walk and run and skateboard and swim in lakes. But I can’t because my mother has Courage. So instead I get to stay in bed and be sick. I’m glad about this. I really am.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun

“You can't teach calculus to a chimpanzee. So just share your banana.”
― John Rachel, Blinders Keepers