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The most bewildering thing about man is his idea of work and the amount of work he imposes upon himself, or civilization has imposed upon him. All nature loafs, while man alone works for a living.
Lin Yutang
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Lin Yutang
Age: 80 †
Born: 1895
Born: October 10
Died: 1976
Died: March 26
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More quotes by Lin Yutang
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.
Lin Yutang
The fonder you are of your ideals, the greater your heartbreaks.
Lin Yutang
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.
Lin Yutang
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.
Lin Yutang
The greater success a man has made, the more he fears a climb down.
Lin Yutang
An educated man is one who has the loves and hatreds together.
Lin Yutang
The wise man reads both books and life itself.
Lin Yutang
As for international understanding, I feel that macaroni has done more for our appreciation of Italy than Mussolini.
Lin Yutang
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.
Lin Yutang
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
I have a hankering to go back to the Orient and discard my necktie. Neckties strangle clear thinking.
Lin Yutang
In contrast to logic, there is common sense, or still better, the Spirit of Reasonableness.
Lin Yutang
There are no books in this world that everybody must read, but only books that a person must read at a certain time in a given place under given circumstances and at a given period of his life.
Lin Yutang
The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.
Lin Yutang
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.
Lin Yutang
If man be sensible and one fine morning, while he is lying in bed, counts at the tips of his fingers how many things in this life truly will give him enjoyment, invariably he will find food is the first one.
Lin Yutang
What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?
Lin Yutang
All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does, he will not send me to Hell.
Lin Yutang
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
Now it is characteristic of play that one plays without reason and there must be no reason for it. Play is its own good reason.
Lin Yutang
