Lin Yutang Quotes & Sayings

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. — Lin Yutang

There is nothing more beautiful in this world than a healthy, wise old man. — Lin Yutang

Scholars who are worth anything at all never know what is call "a hard grind" or what "bitter study" means. — Lin Yutang

The best that we can hope for in this life is that we shall not have sons and grandsons of whom we need to be ashamed. — Lin Yutang

There is no proper time and place for reading. When the mood for reading comes, one can read anywhere — Lin Yutang

Alas, our rulers are not gods, but puny, fallible men, like the kings who constantly forget their parts, and we common men should be their prompters. — Lin Yutang

There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life. — Lin Yutang

Sometimes there are more tears than laughter, and sometimes there is more laughter than tears, and sometimes you feel so choked you can neither weep nor laugh. For tears and laughter there will always be so long as there is human life. When our tear wells have run dry and the voice of laughter is silenced, the world will be truly dead. — Lin Yutang

When one's thoughts and experience have not reached a certain point for reading a masterpiece, the masterpiece will leave only a bad flavor on his palate. — Lin Yutang

As Walt Whitman says, "I am sufficient as I am." It is sufficient that I live - and am probably going to live for another few decades - and that human life exists. Viewed that way, the problem becomes amazingly simple and admits of no two answers. What can be the end of human life except the enjoyment of it? — Lin Yutang

This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought. — Lin Yutang

Nobody is ever misunderstood at a fireside; he may only be disagreed with. — Lin Yutang

The wise man reads both books and life itself. — Lin Yutang

All men and women have passions, natural desires and noble ambitions, and also a conscience; they have sex, hunger, fear, anger, and are subject to sickness, pain, suffering and death. Culture consists of bringing about the expression of these passions and desires in harmony. — Lin Yutang

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

The end of living is the true enjoyment of it. — Lin Yutang

Best behavior means the same thing as the most uncomfortable behavior. — Lin Yutang

The world I believe is far too serious, and being far too serious ... it has need of a wise and merry philosophy. — Lin Yutang

There is a certain proper and luxurious way of lying in bed. Confucius, that great artist of life, "never lay straight" in bed, "like a corpse", but always curled up on one side. I believe one of the greatest pleasures of life is to curl up one's legs in bed. The posture of the arms is also very important, in order to reach the greatest degree of aesthetic pleasure and mental power. I believe the best posture is not lying flat on the bed, but being upholstered with big soft pillows at an angle of thirty degrees with either one arm or both arms placed behind the back of one's head. — Lin Yutang

The dog which remembers only to bark and not to bite, and is led through the streets as a lady's pet, is only a degenerate wolf. — Lin Yutang

I distrust all dead and mechanical formulas for expressing anything connected with human affairs and human personalities. Putting human affairs in exact formulas shows in itself a lack of the sense of humor and therefore a lack of wisdom. — Lin Yutang

Make No Distinctions — Lin Yutang

It is that unoccupied space which makes a room habitable, as it is our leisure hours which make life endurable. — Lin Yutang

O wise humanity, terribly wise humanity! How inscrutable is the civilization where men toil and work and worry their hair gray to get a living and forget to play! — Lin Yutang

Love is an immortal wound that cannot be closed up. A person loses something, a part of her soul, when she loves someone. And she goes about looking for that lost part of her soul, for she knows that otherwise she is incomplete and cannot be at rest. It is only when she is with the person she loves that she becomes complete again in herself; but the moment he leaves, she loses that part which he has taken with him and knows no rest till she has found him once more. — Lin Yutang

Such is human psychology that if we don't express our joy, we soon cease to feel it. — Lin Yutang

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. — Lin Yutang

The human mind is a curious thing. It can take just so much and no more. — Lin Yutang

There is a great probability that our loss of capacity for enjoying the positive joys of life is largely due to the decreased sensibility of our senses and our lack of full use of them. All human happiness is sensuous happiness. — 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

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 — Lin Yutang

No man is inherently respectable, but all women are by nature. — Lin Yutang

Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination. — Lin Yutang

The history omankind seems like kite flying; sometimes, when the wind is favorable, we let go the string a little and the kite soars a little higher; sometimes the wind is too rough and we have to lower it a little, and sometimes it gets caught among the tree branches; but to reach the upper strata of pure bliss-ah, perhaps never. — Lin Yutang

Like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colors are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content. — Lin Yutang

In contrast to logic, there is common sense, or still better, the Spirit of Reasonableness. — Lin Yutang

I am willing to allow that smoking is a moral weakness, but on the other hand, we must beware of the man without weaknesses. He is not to be trusted. He is apt to be always sober and he cannot make a single mistake. His habits are likely to be regular, his existence more mechanical and his head always maintains its supremacy over his heart. Much as I like reasonable persons, I hate completely rational beings. — Lin Yutang

The more we justify our beliefs, the more narrow-minded we become. — Lin Yutang

The passion fades, the remorse is eternal. — Lin Yutang

Much as I like reasonable persons, I hate completely rational beings. For that reason, I am always scared and ill at ease when I enter a house in which there are no ash trays. — 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

True peace of mind comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think it means a release of energy. — Lin Yutang

There is so much to love and to admire in this life that it is an act of ingratitude not to be happy and content in this existence. — 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

And if the reader has no taste for what he reads, all the time is wasted — Lin Yutang

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

The greater success a man has made, the more he fears a climb down. — Lin Yutang

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. — Lin Yutang

The only part of Christian teachings which will be truly accepted by the Chinese people is Christ's injunction to be "harmless as doves" but "wise as serpents. — Lin Yutang

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. — Lin Yutang

Anyone who reads a book with a sense of obligation does not understand the art of reading. — Lin Yutang

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

And did not the degeneration of religion begin with reason itself? As Santayana says, the process of degeneration of religion was due to too much reasoning: "This religion unhappily long ago ceased to be wisdom expressed in fancy in order to become superstition overlaid with reasoning." The decay of religion is due to the pedantic spirit, in the invention of creeds, formulas, articles of faith, doctrines and apologies. We become increasingly less pious as we increasingly justify and rationalize our beliefs and become so sure that we are right. — Lin Yutang

After all, only he who handles his ideas lightly is master of his ideas, and only he who is master of his ideas is not enslaved by them. Seriousness, after all, is only a sign of effort, and effort is a sign of imperfect mastery, — Lin Yutang

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. — Lin Yutang

The question that faces every man born into this world is not what should be his purpose, which he should set about to achieve, but just what to do with life? The answer, that he should order his life so that he can find the greatest happiness in it, is more a practical question, similar to that of how a man should spend his weekend, then a metaphysical proposition as to what is the mystic purpose of his life in the scheme of the universe. — 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

To me personally the only function of philosophy is to teach us to take life more lightly and gayly than the average businessman does, for no businessman who does not retire at fifty, if he can, is in my eyes a philosopher. — Lin Yutang

As for international understanding, I feel that macaroni has done more for our appreciation of Italy than Mussolini. — Lin Yutang

He who is afraid to use an "I" in his writing will never make a good writer. — Lin Yutang

It is important that man dreams, but it is perhaps equally important that he can laugh at his own dreams. — Lin Yutang

Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother — Lin Yutang

A good traveler is one who who does not know where he is going to , and a perfect traveler does not know where he came from. — Lin Yutang

Creative work carries with it a form of intense love. — Lin Yutang

Art is both creation and recreation. — Lin Yutang

A cocktail party is a place where you talk with a person you do not know about a subject you have no interest in. — Lin Yutang

If there is anything we are serious about, it is neither religion nor learning, but food. — Lin Yutang

There is more hope in a heather rose than in all the tons of Teutonic philosophy. — Lin Yutang

Anyone who wishes to learn to enjoy life must find friends of the same type of temperament, and take as much trouble to gain and keep their friendship as wives take to keep their husbands. — Lin Yutang

Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks. — Lin Yutang

The moment a student gives up his right of personal judgment, he is in for accepting all the humbugs of life — Lin Yutang

Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst. — Lin Yutang

Who are we? That is the first question. It is a question almost impossible to answer. But we all agree that the busy self occupied in our daily activities is not quite the real self. We are quite sure we have lost something in the mere pursuit of living. — Lin Yutang

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. — Lin Yutang

Happiness has always seemed like a bluebird, and consists of moments. — Lin Yutang

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. — Lin Yutang

For a Westerner, it is usually sufficient for a proposition to be logically sound. For a Chinese it is not sufficient that a proposition be logically correct, but it must be at the same time in accord with human nature. — Lin Yutang

The Chinese do not draw any distinction between food and medicine. — Lin Yutang

The critical mind is too thin and cold, thinking itself will help little and reason will be of small avail; only the spirit of reasonableness, a sort of warm, glowing, emotional and intuitive thinking, joined with compassion, will insure us against a reversion to our ancestral type. Only the development of our life to bring it into harmony with our instincts can save us. I consider the education of our senses and our emotions rather more important than the education of our ideas. — Lin Yutang

Somewhere in [China's] soul lurks the cunning of an old dog, and it is a cunning that is strangely impressive. What a strange old soul! What a great old soul! — Lin Yutang

my formula for the Chinese national mind is: R4D1H3S3 There — Lin Yutang

Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do. — Lin Yutang

Not until we see the richness of the Hindu mind and its essential spirituality can we understand India — Lin Yutang

I can see no other reason for the existence of art and poetry and religion except as they tend to restore in us a freshness of vision and more emotional glamour and more vital sense of life. — 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

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

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. — Lin Yutang

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it, and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself. — Lin Yutang

When Small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set. — Lin Yutang

All human beings are like travelers floating down the eternal river of time, embarking at a certain point and disembarking again at another point in order to make room for others waiting below the river to come aboard. — Lin Yutang

The humour of the Chinese people in inventing gunpowder and finding its best use in making firecrackers for their grandfathers' birthdays is merely symbolical of their inventiveness along merely pacific lines. — Lin Yutang

Reality + Dreams + Humor = Wisdom So — Lin Yutang

I have done my best. That is about all the philosophy of living one needs. — Lin Yutang

The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy. — Lin Yutang

Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body. — Lin Yutang

So long as man is man, variety will still be the flavor of life. — Lin Yutang

The purpose of a short story is ... that the reader shall come away with the satisfactory feeling that a particular insight into human character has been gained, or that his (or her) knowledge of life has been deepened, or that pity, love or sympathy for a human being is awakened. — Lin Yutang

How many of us are able to distinguish between the odors of noon and midnight, or of winter and summer, or of a windy spell and a still one? If man is so generally less happy in the cities than in the country, it is because all these variations and nuances of sight and smell and sound are less clearly marked and lost in the general monotony of gray walls and cement pavements. — Lin Yutang

Of all the rights of woman, the greatest is to be a mother — Lin Yutang

Life is too short to make an over-serious business out of it. — Lin Yutang