“Whenever possible, I have avoided phraseology which, natural and familiar in Chinese, would be exotic or quaint in English.”

Explaining his preference for natural English rather than artificial exoticism · Essay, Poetry and Culture, introduction to The Jade Mountain (1929)

• Art
• Poetry
• Truth

“I detect in it something that he does not specify: a reason for the continuance of poetry as a live factor among his people.”

Seeking the cultural conditions that allow poetry to remain a living art · Essay, Poetry and Culture, introduction to The Jade Mountain (1929)

• Poetry
• Time

“Other people die, why can't I?”

Reported as Bynner's last words after years of severe disability, though the precise wording rests on recollection · Reported last words, 1968

• Death
• Mortality