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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.

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
Blessing
Difference
Differences
Probably
Monkeys
Imagination
Boredom
Men
Plus
Bored
Merely

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In the West, the insane are so many that they are put in an asylum, in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them.
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A good traveller is one who does not know where he is going to, and a perfect traveller does not know where he came from.
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No man is inherently respectable, but all women are by nature.
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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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Life is too short to make an over-serious business out of it.
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Nothing matters to a man who says nothing matters.
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We should not expect people to be good, but should make it impossible for them to be bad.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Let us face ourselves bravely as we are. For only a philosophy that recognizes reality can lead us into true happiness, and only that kind of philosophy is sound and healthy.
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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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Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought.
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The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.
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The only test of a soul's salvation is its inward happiness.
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What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?
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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.
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