Three Kingdoms is one of China's four major literary classics, which include Dream of the Red Chamber, Journey to the West, and the Water Margin Legend.
The first quote in the epic novel, "The empire long divided must unite; long united, must divide" is often used to characterize the inevitable cyclic nature of nations.
Cao Cao's most quoted line for his ruthlessness is: "Better to wrong the world than to have it wrong me!"
It was footnoted in the novel that Zhou Yu originally came up with the famous plan to 'borrow' arrows from Cao Cao's army in the fog but it was more fitting for storytelling to credit it to Zhuge Liang.