From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2008-01-05:
"Because it does not take much courage to fight when you still believe you can win. What takes real courage is to keep fighting when all hope is gone." -- Deqing, Shaolin monk, explaining why heroes in Western action movies (who usually succeed) are less heroic than heroes in Chinese action movies (who usually die). Quoted by Matthew Polly in his memoir American Shaolin, about studying martial arts in China.
(submitted to the mailing list by Terry Labach)