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Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
Lin Yutang
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Lin Yutang
Age: 80 †
Born: 1895
Born: October 10
Died: 1976
Died: March 26
Lexicographer
Linguist
Novelist
Philosopher
Translator
Writer
Getting
Priorities
Elimination
Simple
Simplicity
Eliminating
Art
Yoga
Simplify
Done
Noble
Undone
Things
Essentials
Relaxation
Time
Leaving
Besides
Life
Motivational
Favourite
Uncomplicated
Wisdom
Consists
Minimalism
More quotes by Lin Yutang
What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?
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It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action.
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A vague uncritical idealism always lends itself to ridicule and too much of it might be a danger to mankind, leading it round in a futile wild-goose chase for imaginary ideals.
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China is the greatest mystifying and stupefying fact in the modern world.
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Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought.
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Instead of holding on to the Biblical view that we are made in the image of God, we come to realize that we are made in the image of the monkey.
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The purpose of a short story is ... that the reader shall come away with the satisfactory feeling that a particular insight into human character has been gained, or that his (or her) knowledge of life has been deepened, or that pity, love or sympathy for a human being is awakened.
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The wise man reads both books and life itself.
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However vague they are, dreams have a way of concealing themselves and leave us no peace until they are translated into reality, like seeds germinating underground, sure to sprout in their search for the sunlight.
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The more we justify our beliefs, the more narrow-minded we become.
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All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does, he will not send me to Hell.
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Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination.
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To glorify the past and paint the future is easy, to survey the present and emerge with some light and understanding is difficult.
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Everything has its place and time. We men of the nineteen-forties can smile at the mistakes of the nineteen-thirties, and, in turn, the men of the nineteen-fifties will laugh at the mistakes of the nineteen-forties. It is this historical perspective that shall save us.
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Few men who have liberated themselves from the fear of God and the fear of death are yet able to liberate themselves from the fear of man.
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I have done my best. That is about all the philosophy of living one needs.
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What threatens civilization today is not war, but the changing conception of life values entailed by certain political doctrines. Only by recapturing the dream of human freedom and restoring the importance of the common man's liberties can that undermining threat to modern civilization be averted
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The only test of a soul's salvation is its inward happiness.
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O wise humanity, terribly wise humanity! How inscrutable is the civilization where men toil and work and worry their hair gray to get a living and forget to play!
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On the whole, the enjoyment of leisure is something which decidedly costs less than the enjoyment of luxury. All it requires is an artistic temperament which is bent on seeking a perfectly useless afternoon spent in a perfectly useless manner.
Lin Yutang