Travels etc.

Chris Torrens in his book " Doing Business in China " uses quotes and proverbs for every chapter. One of them is "A conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study. Chinese proverb" on page 87. I was curious to find out how it may sound in Chinese and after some research found the following quote: "A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years' study of books." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion (1839), Chapter VII. Quoted from the Chinese. Interesting twist, isn't it? Then I found a book " Chinese Moral Maxims: With a Free and Verbal Translation, Affording Examples of the Grammatical Structure of the Language " by John Francis Davis, F.R.S. The book was published in 1823. The compilation of idioms in the book was made in 1818 to help students who are learning Chinese and "other Persons to whom it may not be altogether devoid of interest". The quoted proverb is on the pa...

I’d like to start with some hypothetical examples. Example 1 . You might have seen somebody saying: “Machiavelli: The end justifies the means” or “As Machiavelli said: The end justifies the means”. Example 2 . “Be the change you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi” Example 3 . “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. – Bertrand Russell”. Or “Don’t argue with idiots because they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. — Greg King” Example 4 . “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. – Confucius” or “Everything comes to you at the right time. Just be patient.” I am sure some of us are faced with the examples above or similar quotes quite often. Let’s look at them in detail and see how the quotes are usually used and how it can be improved. Usually there are several reasons to use a quote that appear separately or in combination with each other: a) Support...

Now here's where "Invisible Hand" comes into play:  "As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can, both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce maybe of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it . By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security ; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain ; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually ...

"But it seems to be otherwise with potatoes. The chairmen, porters, and coalheavers in London, and those unfortunate women who live by prostitution, the strongest men and the most beautiful women perhaps in the British dominions, are said to be, the greater part of them, from the lowest rank of people in Ireland, who are generally fed with this root. No food can afford a more decisive proof of its nourishing quality, or of its being peculiarly suitable to the health of the human constitution." - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations Want to be healthy, strong and good looking? :)