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Nobody is ever misunderstood at a fireside he may only be disagreed with.

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
Ever
Fireside
Disagreed
Misunderstood
Nobody
May

More quotes by Lin Yutang

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An educated man is one who has the loves and hatreds together.
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Creative work carries with it a form of intense love.
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Business men who are busy the whole day and immediately go to bed after supper, snoring like cows, are not likely to contribute anything to culture.
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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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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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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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He who is afraid to use an I in his writing will never make a good writer.
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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.
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I do not think that any civilization can be called complete until it has progressed from sophistication to unsophistication, and made a conscious return to simplicity of thinking and living.
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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.
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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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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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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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Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.
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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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The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.
Lin Yutang
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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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What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?
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Reality - Dreams = Animal Being Reality + Dreams = A Heart-Ache (usually called Idealism) Reality + Humor = Realism (also called Conservatism) Dreams - Humor = Fanaticism Dreams + Humor = Fantasy Reality + Dreams + Humor = Wisdom
Lin Yutang
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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.
Lin Yutang