"In 1596, Matteo Ricci taught the Chinese how to build a memory palace." (1)

"The whole point of writing something down is that your voice will then carry for thousands of miles, whereas in direct conversation it fades at a hundred paces." (22)

"For the first image in his memory palace, Ricci decides to build on the Chinese ideograph for war, pronounced wu." (24)

"Better to have no Christians than Christians of that type." (42)

"The Chinese place absolutely no trust in any foreign country, and thus they allow no one at all to enter and reside here unless they undertake never again to return home, as is the case with us." (54)

"'Go forward to that city'—and here it seemed to me that he was showing me Peking—'and there I will help you.'" (82)

"For his second example of how to construct a memory image, Ricci chooses the Chinese...