When the sun is shining, think of the time it won't be, because even when you're sitting in your house with the doors shut, misfortune can fall from above.

We're told that men are strong and brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat, and bear physical and mental agony much better than men.

—Lisa See in Shanghai Girls

What stays with me most is a general sense of loss, unease, and longing for the past that cannot be relieved.

—Lisa See in Shanghai Girls

I wonder if there was anything I would have done differently. I hope I would have done everything differently, except I know everything would have turned out the same. That's the meaning of fate.

—Lisa See in Shanghai Girls

One mistake can change the course of your life. You can never return to your original path or go back to the person you were.

—Lisa See in The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

I didn't know you would be here last night, but you were. We can't fight fate. Instead, we must accept that fate has given us a special opportunity.

—Lisa See in Peony in Love

Fortune befriends the bold.

—Emily Dickinson

Fortune can, for her pleasure, fools advance, / And toss them on the wheels of Chance.

—Juvenal

Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.

—Walt Whitman

Fortune favors the brave.

—Virgil