Speaking has always been of great significance throughout history. Confucius, a renowned educator, established four disciplines: virtue, speech, governance, and literature. Three of these are directly related to speech. Virtue is disseminated through speech, governance cannot do without diplomacy and orators, and literature is an art of language. Confucianism has had a profound influence. The classic works "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius" are the words of Confucius and Mencius. What they said is still in use today, but many people are unaware that they are merely parroting.

The author carefully selects the words spoken by predecessors from history, classics, biographies and literary works. Some of them have become allusions and idioms, and are applied in various creations and daily life in both ancient and modern times. From these sayings, we can learn historical facts, wisdom, self-cultivation, skills... which can help you speak better in any occasion and also enhance your literary knowledge.

Nowadays, the most important tool in our lives is the mobile phone, and its most crucial function is communication. The development of AI technology can do many things for us, even faster and better than we can, but it cannot replace us in giving speeches, debating, preaching, expressing love, giving warnings, sharing thoughts, comforting, making jokes, crying out, and other interactions and exchanges that involve the heart, expressions, voice, and body language.

A Nong
Pen name of Zhu Pusheng, an educator and prolific writer in his spare time.
-Author of 100+ titles spanning essays, fiction, fairy-tales and poetry.
-Voted “Favourite Writer” by secondary-school students six times.
-Honorary Fellow, The Education University of Hong Kong (2009), for services to youth education.

Recent works:
A Tour of the Chinese Imagination
Happy Days on a Shoestring
A Hundred Beautiful Things Said
Love in 80 Small Tales

His critique of Chinese classical fiction, “Listen to the Next Episode”, won the 14th Hong Kong Book Award and the 3rd Hong Kong Publishing Biennial Prize (Children & Young Adults category).

Preface: The Power of Words
1.Anecdotes of the Famous
2.Golden Maxims
3.The Hundred Schools of Thought
4.Figures from History
5.Modern Voices
6.Idle Sorrows, Lasting Lines
7.Every Quotation Has a Story