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This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.

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
Literature
Thought
Change
Character
Conceive
Chemical
Chemicals
Function
Humor

More quotes by Lin Yutang

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The world I believe is far too serious, and being far too serious ... it has need of a wise and merry philosophy.
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Today we are afraid of simple words like goodness and mercy and kindness. We don't believe in the good old words because we don't believe in good old values anymore. And that's why the world is sick.
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The more we justify our beliefs, the more narrow-minded we become.
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The only test of a soul's salvation is its inward happiness.
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I have a hankering to go back to the Orient and discard my necktie. Neckties strangle clear thinking.
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Let him cry whoever feels like crying, for we were animals before we became reasoning beings, and the shedding of a tear, whether of forgiveness or of pity or of sheer delight at beauty, will do him a lot of good.
Lin Yutang
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Neckties strangle clear thinking.
Lin Yutang
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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.
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It is not dirt but the fear of dirt which is the sign of man's degeneration, and it is dangerous to judge a man's physical and moral sanity by outside standards.
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Of all the unhappy people in the world, the unhappiest are those who have not found something they want to do.
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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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Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice.
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All women's dresses, in every age and country, are merely variations on the eternal struggle between the admitted desire to dress and the unadmitted desire to undress.
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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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Life is too short to make an over-serious business out of it.
Lin Yutang
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The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.
Lin Yutang
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Nobody is ever misunderstood at a fireside he may only be disagreed with.
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The Chinese do not draw any distinction between food and medicine.
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If one's bowels move, one is happy, and if they don't move, one is unhappy. That is all there is to it.
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By association with nature's enormities, a man's heart may truly grow big also.
Lin Yutang