No man can be happy without a friend, nor be sure of his friend till he is unhappy.

Man can sin against nature in two ways. First, when he sins against his specific rational nature, acting contrary to reason. In this sense, we can say that every sin is a sin against man’s nature, because it is against man’s right reason.

There is no weakness in crying. If we do not sorrow over what hurts us, how do we ever go past it? I have shed many a tear myself, Barbara Devane, over what life has brought me. Compassion can come from great pain, if you allow it. But compassion takes courage. Bitterness is easier.

I have a profound dislike for showing off one’s material wealth. This is insensitive and it is not what human hearts are made for. But what I like about China and sometimes miss in Europe is the entrepreneurial spirit of our young people, their ambition and dynamism.

A person who reads lives a thousand lives. A person who reads not, lives only one.

An eye for an eye til everyone is blind.

China – if you think about what is the character of China, it’s enormous scale. It’s bigness.

I find it hard to be labelled in this new ‘super-rich’ category because we all grew up with very little. The idea that ‘to get rich is glorious’ is really a new phenomenon. I certainly didn’t grow up like that.

Investors don’t like uncertainty. The market is telling us that they need certainty, they need to see where the economy is heading. If the government is committed to continue the Open Door policy, they will need to come up with concrete policies and execution steps to increase confidence.

But the higher our standard of living, the higher our levels of education, the further people will look around. And we can see which level of openness other societies enjoy. We are no different – we too want more freedom. The question is: How much freedom will be allowed.

I don’t do evening business dinners, and I don’t do weekends.

It’s a good thing that it is getting simpler to register a company in China, it is good that the exchange rate of our currency is getting more flexible and that it’s getting easier for Chinese businesspeople to travel. All of this opens up our economy.

Quickly, after I landed in England, I found out ways to get scholarships. England turned out to be a very encouraging place for me.

Many years ago, we were only able to build boxes. Today, architects from all over the world are working with us – Zaha Hadid from London, Gerkan, Marg and Partner from Hamburg, Kengo Kuma from Japan. We brought design and digitalization from abroad to China.

Growth will be slower, no one denies that. But the question is: Where are the chances and opportunities now? I see some positive and some negative trends.

Because people along the route had realized that there was demand and quickly organized supply. That’s so Chinese. In a well-organized country like Germany, such a problem may not have arisen in the first place, but in China people immediately recognized an opportunity.

I think women of our generation went through Cultural Revolution, went through hardship, coming from nowhere, and suddenly see China’s amazing opportunity. So women just seized the opportunity.

It’s not easy to be my sons because we’re very high profile. We try so hard to give them a normal life. I’m very, very tight with them about money. I don’t give that money until they ask, ‘I need 100 yuan for my lunch card,’ and so on. So they never have extra money.

One of the best ways to demonstrate God’s love is to listen to people.

You can’t be a real man if you don’t look out for your kids. They need you.

solation means a lack of growth. I grew up in China at a time when the country was completely isolated. That era is over.

Chinese no longer crave so much for food and accommodation, but they do crave democracy. I stand by that. I don’t know which model China will follow.

Many Chinese entrepreneurs are now donating for education; others support foundations in health care and research. None of us wants to be the richest guy in the cemetery.

But it is a worry that there have been so many delays in the reform of China’s state-owned enterprises. We all know that private companies are run more efficiently than state ones. These reforms are very much anticipated for the potential dynamism they could create.

No economy, no company, in fact no individual can develop its full potential today without embracing two fundamental trends – globalization and digitalization. They will dominate for quite some time to come.

Many Chinese companies are run like military camps with military discipline. We do not run a company that way. It does not help the creative process.

Country [China] needs to continue opening up and keep connecting. It needs to realize that the world has become one. The old concept of isolation, the idea that you can solve your problems on your own does not work anymore – neither in cultural, economic, nor political terms.

China has consistently surprised us. When I returned from the United States many years ago, it was unimaginable that we would end up where we are now. What China has achieved defies all logic. I credit this to the hard work and enterprising spirit of the Chinese people.

On the weekends, I do the usual parental things, going to the boys’ football tournaments or getting out for a hike along the Great Wall.