Quote

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.

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
Light
Truths
Must
Calls
Would
Statements
Involved
Bring
Clear
Prophets
Age
Doom
Simple
Prophet

More quotes by Lin Yutang

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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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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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A tendency to fly too straight at a goal, instead of circling around it, often carries one too far.
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No man is inherently respectable, but all women are by nature.
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By association with nature's enormities, a man's heart may truly grow big also.
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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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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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Few men who have liberated themselves from the fear of God and the fear of death are yet able to liberate themselves from the fear of man.
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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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The only test of a soul's salvation is its inward happiness.
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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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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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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.
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The Chinese do not draw any distinction between food and medicine.
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I have done my best. That is about all the philosophy of living one needs.
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Happiness has always seemed like a bluebird, and consists of moments.
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Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought.
Lin Yutang
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The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.
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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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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