Quotes from Adeline Yen Mah

Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.

But you can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.

Transcend your abuse and transform it into a source of courage, creativity and compassion.

Never get involved. That's my motto. I hurt no one. And no one can hurt me.

Though life has to be lived forward, it can only be understood backwards

Revenge is not worthy of you. If you concentrate on revenge, you will keep those wounds fresh that would otherwise have healed.

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.

Don't trust anyone. Be a cold fish. I hurt no one. And no one can hurt me.

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.

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

keep in mind that whenever you are in a crisis, you are in the midst of danger as well as oportunity.

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.

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.

Suen Le! (it means, "Let it be.

No matter what else people may steal from you, they will never be able to take away your knowledge.

Create your own destiny!

Day after day, anxiety spun its web around my thoughts and spread to all corners of my heart.

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.

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?

You can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.

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

Keep in mind that whenever you are in a crisis, you are in the midst of danger as well as opportunity.

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.

I knew that I was the least-loved child because I was a girl and because my mother had died giving birth to me.