No child is born with a really cold heart, and it is only in proportion as we lose that youthful heart that we lose the inner warmth in ourselves.
Lin YutangTrue peace of mind comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think it means a release of energy.
Lin YutangHow 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 YutangAfter all the allowances are made for the necessity of having a few supermen in our midst - explorers, conquerors, great inventors, great presidents, heroes who change the course of history - the happiest man is still the man of the middle class who has earned a slight means of economic independence, who has done a little, but just a little, for mankind and who is slightly distinguished in his community, but not too distinguished.
Lin YutangWhere 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 YutangOnce Confucius was walking on the mountains and he came across a woman weeping by a grave. He asked the woman what here sorrow was, and she replied, We are a family of hunters. My father was eaten by a tiger. My husband was bitten by a tiger and died. And now my only son! Why don't you move down and live in the valley? Why do you continue to live up here? asked Confucius. And the woman replied, But sir, there are no tax collectors here! Confucius added to his disciples, You see, a bad government is more to be feared than tigers.
Lin YutangThe 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 YutangThe 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 YutangThe 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 YutangOn 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.
Lin YutangIn fact,I believe the reason why the Chinese failed to develop botany and zoology is that the Chinese scholar cannot stare coldly and unemotionally at a fish without immediately thinking of how it tastes in the mouth and wanting to eat it. The reason I don't trust Chinese surgeons is that I am afraid that when a Chinese surgeon cuts up my liver in search of a gall-stone, he may forget about the stone and put my liver in a frying pan.
Lin YutangHope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.
Lin YutangAll 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 YutangIn the West, the insane are so many that they are put in an asylum, in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them.
Lin YutangMen resort to talking only when they haven't the power to enforce their convictions upon others.
Lin YutangThere 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 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 YutangI like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colours richer, and it is tinged a little with sorrow and a premonition of death. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor of the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and is content.
Lin YutangA man who has to be punctually at a certain place at five o'clock has the whole afternoon ruined for him already.
Lin YutangIf one's bowels move, one is happy, and if they don't move, one is unhappy. That is all there is to it.
Lin YutangThere 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 YutangIf man be sensible and one fine morning, while he is lying in bed, counts at the tips of his fingers how many things in this life truly will give him enjoyment, invariably he will find food is the first one.
Lin YutangWhen we demand liberty of a person as a constitutional right, we are taking away from the officials their liberty to chop off people's heads.
Lin YutangFew 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.
Lin YutangAnyone who reads a book with a sense of obligation does not understand the art of reading.
Lin YutangI 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 YutangNot until we see the richness of the Hindu mind and its essential spirituality can we understand India
Lin YutangSociety can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.
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 YutangO 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 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 YutangThe three great American vices seem to be efficiency, punctuality, and the desire for achievement and success. They are the things that make the Americans so unhappy and so nervous.
Lin Yutang