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

— Adeline Yen Mah

In the early 1970s, racial and gender discrimination was still prevalent. The easy camaraderie prevailing in the operating room evaporated at the completion of surgical procedures. There was an unspoken pecking order of seating arrangements at lunch among my fellow physicians. At the top were the white male 'primary producers' in prestigious surgical specialties. They were followed by the internists. Next came the general practitioners. Last on the list were the hospital-based physicians: the radiologists, pathologists and anesthesiologists - especially non-white, female ones like me. Apart from color, we were shunned because we did not bring in patients ourselves but, like vultures, lived off the patients generated by other doctors. We were also resented because being hospital-based and not having to rent office space or hire nursing staff, we had low overheads. Since a physician's number of admissions to the hospital and referral pattern determined the degree of attention and regard accorded by colleagues, it was safe for our peers to ignore us and target those in position to send over income-producing referrals. This attitude was mirrored from the board of directors all the way down to the orderlies.

— Adeline Yen Mah

Length Crawford (a divorced ophthalmologist): "We women doctors have unhappy marriages because in our minds we are the superstars of our families. Having survived the hardship of medical school we expect to reap our rewards at home. We had to assert ourselves against all odds and when we finally graduate there are few shrinking violets amongst us. It takes a special man to be able to cope. Men like to feel important and be the undisputed head of the family. A man does not enjoy waiting for his wife while she performs life-saving operations. He expects her and their children to revolve around his needs, not the other way. But we have become accustomed to giving orders in hospitals and having them obeyed. Once home, it's difficult to adjust. Moreover, we often earn more than our husbands. It takes a generous and exceptional man to forgive all that.

— Adeline Yen Mah

Mother Teresa once said, "Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted are the greatest poverty." To this I will add: Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.

— Adeline Yen Mah

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

— Adeline Yen Mah

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

— Adeline Yen Mah

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

— Adeline Yen Mah

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’obviously nobody looking out for me. I’ll just have to find my own way.

— Adeline Yen Mah

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

— Adeline Yen Mah

To celebrate his prosperity, fellow employees and friends urged him to take a young concubine to "serve him". Even Ye's boss, the London-educated K. C. Li, jokingly volunteered to "give" him a couple of girls with his bonus. Ye reported all this in a matter-of-fact way in a letter to his wife, adding touchingly that he was a "one-woman man".

— Adeline Yen Mah