That reminds me of a joke about some newlyweds having the family over for dinner. Ham was on the menu. The bride cut one end off the ham and put it in a roasting pan. The groom asked why she cut the end off. She said Mama always did that. During dinner the groom asked his MIL why. She said, "Mama always did. He looked at his GMIL and asked why she cut the end off. She said, "I didn't have a pan long enough".

"Choose an author as you would choose a friend." Wentworth Dillon. "When I want to read a novel, I write one." Benjamin Disrraeli "Books support us in our solitude and and keep us from being a burden to ourselves." Jeremy Collier "You know that you have read a good book when you turn the last page a little as if you have lost a friend." Paul Sweeny "A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter any other way." Caroline Gordon 'Without libraries where are we? We have no past and no future." Ray Bradbury "My test of a good novel is dreading to read the last chapter." Thomas Helm "There is no faster or firmer friendships than those between people who love the same books." Irving Stone "Books may be the only true magic." Alice Hoffman

Wild Swan is probably my favorite book on China - fiction or non. The stories of her grandmother, mother and herself read like good fiction, and I came away with a much better understanding of modern Chinese history and culture then I had before. I agree - I don't think you can really make any generalization about any country, but esp not one so big. Yes we export some of our most glaring stereotypes for all to see. But its so very different between regions, states, rural/urban/suburban, and so dependent on class, race or nationalities. Rather an interesting mix, actually. Im in a website that has a language forum, and people from all over the country pop in with their favorite regionalisms, and comments on others. Makes me remember how really diverse this huge nation is, and makes me wonder how in the world we managed to all stick together for so long!

If you are just looking for the passage, and you know that it is an actual quote by the the true to life Rabbi Hillel, you might google the name of the book and add Hillel and see what you get. The " 'Who diminishs himself, diminishes me and who diminishes another, diminishes me. ....' certainly is familiar to me, I suspect I can find it in one of my more modern Siddur (prayer books). He is also the one who said 'If I am not for myself, who will be for me?, If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"