What earthly use are these Confucian graphs?
Masters and doctors lie curled up and wilt.
Why not take lessons and become a clerk?
At night champagne, at break of day cow's milk!

What good are Chinese characters? All those Ph.D.'s are out of work. Much better to be a clerk for the French: You get milk in the morning and champagne at night. | In: Understanding Vietnam by Neil L. Jamieson (University of California Press, 1995), ISBN 978-0520916586, p. 55