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 YutangArt is both creation and recreation. Of the two ideas, I think art as recreation or as sheer play of the human spirit is more important.
Lin YutangNow 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 YutangI have a hankering to go back to the Orient and discard my necktie. Neckties strangle clear thinking.
Lin YutangA cocktail party is a place where you talk with a person you do not know about a subject you have no interest in.
Lin YutangWhat 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