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Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of 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
Depth
Thought
Outward
Symbol
Symbols
Simplicity
Sign

More quotes by Lin Yutang

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China is the greatest mystifying and stupefying fact in the modern world.
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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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Since the invention of the flush toilet and the vacuum carpet cleaner, the modern man seems to judge a man's moral standards by his cleanliness, and thinks a dog the more highly civilized for having a weekly bath and a winter wrapper round his belly.
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The only test of a soul's salvation is its inward happiness.
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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 Chinese do not draw any distinction between food and medicine.
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No man is inherently respectable, but all women are by nature.
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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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My faith in human dignity consists in the belief that man is the greatest scamp on earth. Human dignity must be associated with the idea of a scamp and not with that of an obedient, disciplined and regimented soldier.
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In contrast to logic, there is common sense, or still better, the Spirit of Reasonableness.
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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.
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All human happiness is sensuous happiness.
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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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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.
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Life is too short to make an over-serious business out of it.
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Such is human psychology that if we don't express our joy, we soon cease to feel it.
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The wise man reads both books and life itself.
Lin Yutang
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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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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
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This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.
Lin Yutang