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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
Outward
Symbol
Symbols
Simplicity
Sign
Depth
Thought

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He who is afraid to use an I in his writing will never make a good writer.
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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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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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This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.
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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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The end of living is the true enjoyment of it.
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By association with nature's enormities, a man's heart may truly grow big also.
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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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Life is too short to make an over-serious business out of it.
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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 age calls for simple statements and restatements of simple truths. The prophets of doom are involved, those who would bring light must be clear.
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I feel, like all modern Americans, no consciousness of sin and simply do not believe in it. All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does, he will not send me to Hell. That is a final fact of my inner consciousness, and for no religion could I deny its truth.
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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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No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.
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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.
Lin Yutang
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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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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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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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Happiness has always seemed like a bluebird, and consists of moments.
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As for international understanding, I feel that macaroni has done more for our appreciation of Italy than Mussolini.
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