One such book is Best-Loved Chinese Proverbs by Theodora Lau.  Here is the publiser blurb:

“By filling one’s head instead of one’s pocket, one cannot be robbed.”

The appeal of Chinese proverbs is profound and universal. With brevity, clarity, and simplicity, these carefully chosen words help pass wisdom and insight throughout the ages. This timeless, eloquent collection of proverbs offers fundamental truths about the natural world and the human condition, on subjects such as:

Ability • Adversity • Beauty • Chracter • Conflict

Cooperation • Deception • Defeat • Fortune • Greed • Happiness

Honor • Inspiration • Knowledge • Leadership • Love

Moderation • Necessity • Neighbors • Obstinacy • Opportunity

Perseverance • Pride • Sincerity • Strategy • Success

Thought • Trust • Victory • Wisdom • And More

And really there is not much else to add to that.  If you have an interest in China or just enjoy Chinese Proverbs (or pithy insights in general) then this is the kind of book you will want.

It is attractively designed – including traditional calligraphy with a pronunciation key – and laid out by subject as noted above.  It is a handy book to have on the coffee table or to dip into when the mood strikes.  It is also handy if you are looking for a particularly apt quote to use to introduce a subject; a creative twist on quotable quotes.

Here are a couple of my favorites so far:

• “First attain skill; creativity comes later.”
• “Fashion is a tyrant who dictates never-ending change.”
• “That which is beautiful is not always good.  But that which is good is always beautiful.”
• “Often one finds destiny just where one hides to avoid it.”
• “Pleasure cannot be pursued to its limit, for pleasure could also be a fountain of sorrow.”

Do you have a favorite saying or proverb?  If so leave in the comments.  If not, check out this handy collection.  Who knows you might learn something . . .

Description

“By filling one’s head instead of one’s pocket, one cannot be robbed.”

The appeal of Chinese proverbs is profound and universal. With brevity, clarity, and simplicity, these carefully chosen words help pass wisdom and insight throughout the ages. This timeless, eloquent collection of proverbs offers fundamental truths about the natural world and the human condition, on subjects such as:

Ability • Adversity • Beauty • Character • Conflict Cooperation • Deception • Defeat • Fortune • Greed • Happiness Honor • Inspiration • Knowledge • Leadership • Love Moderation • Necessity • Neighbors • Obstinacy • Opportunity Perseverance • Pride • Sincerity • Strategy • Success Thought • Trust • Victory • Wisdom • And More

“With our thoughts we must build our world.”

–> Snark by David Denby

Description

What is snark? You recognize it when you see it — a tone of teasing, snide, undermining abuse, nasty and knowing, that is spreading like pinkeye through the media and threatening to take over how Americans converse with each other and what they can count on as true. Snark attempts to steal someone’s mojo, erase her cool, annihilate her effectiveness. In this sharp and witty polemic, New Yorker critic and bestselling author David Denby takes on the snarkers, naming the nine principles of snark — the standard techniques its practitioners use to poison their arrows. Snarkers like to think they are deploying wit, but mostly they are exposing the seethe and snarl of an unhappy country, releasing bad feeling but little laughter.

In this highly entertaining essay, Denby traces the history of snark through the ages, starting with its invention as personal insult in the drinking clubs of ancient Athens, tracking its development all the way to the age of the Internet, where it has become the sole purpose and style of many media, political, and celebrity Web sites. Snark releases the anguish of the dispossessed, envious, and frightened; it flows when a dying class of the powerful struggles to keep the barbarians outside the gates, or, alternately, when those outsiders want to take over the halls of the powerful and expel the office-holders. Snark was behind the London-based magazine Private Eye, launched amid the dying embers of the British empire in 1961; it was also central to the career-hungry, New York-based magazine Spy. It has flourished over the years in the works of everyone from the startling Roman poet Juvenal to Alexander Pope to Tom Wolfe to a million commenters snarling at other people behind handles. Thanks to the grand dame of snark, it has a prominent place twice a week on the opinion page of the New York Times.

Denby has fun snarking the snarkers, expelling the bums and promoting the true wits, but he is also making a serious point: the Internet has put snark on steroids. In politics, snark means the lowest, most insinuating and insulting side can win. For the young, a savage piece of gossip could ruin a reputation and possibly a future career. And for all of us, snark just sucks the humor out of life. Denby defends the right of any of us to be cruel, but shows us how the real pros pull it off. Snark, he says, is for the amateurs.

–> Kidnapped: And Other Dispatches by Alan Johnston

Description

“What shines through, even in horrific moments, is Johnston’s balance, decency and humour.”-Bloomberg

When Alan Johnston, the last Western journalist who dared to remain in Gaza, was kidnapped by terrorists, millions of people around the world felt the need to express their anger and determination to set him free. His captivity was an attack on the freedom of speech, and this collection of Johnston’s dispatches is the long-awaited and moving account of life in Gaza, his ordeal, and his release.