Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang
Lin Yutangwas a Chinese writer, translator, linguist and inventor. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West...
NationalityChinese
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth10 October 1895
CountryChina
friendship occasional plain-speaking
Only friendship which can stand occasional plain speaking is worth having.
motivational art time
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.
philosophy loss medicine
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.
wise busy too-busy
Those who are wise won't be busy, and those who are too busy can't be wise.
philosophy reality healthy
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.
wise men busy
The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.
dream reality way
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.
common-sense logic spirit
In contrast to logic, there is common sense, or still better, the Spirit of Reasonableness.
philosophy views objectivity
I rather despise claims to objectivity in philosophy; the point of view is the thing.
inner-peace soul tests
The only test of a soul's salvation is its inward happiness.
this-life existence admire
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.
goal tendencies carrie
A tendency to fly too straight at a goal, instead of circling around it, often carries one too far.
teacher philosophy night
India was China's teacher in religion and imaginative literature, and the world's teacher in trignometry, quandratic equations, grammar, phonetics, Arabian Nights, animal fables, chess, as well as in philosophy, and that she inspired Boccaccio, Goethe, Herder, Schopenhauer, Emerson, and probably also old Aesop.
summer spring autumn
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.