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.Collection: Society
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.Collection: Travel
This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.Collection: Humor
Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks.Collection: Food
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.Collection: Wisdom
Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.Collection: Hope
No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.Collection: Travel
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.Collection: Peace
If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.
The wise man reads both books and life itself.
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.
When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.Collection: Business
Those who are wise won't be busy, and those who are too busy can't be wise.Collection: Wise
I 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.Collection: Summer
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.Collection: This Life
Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought.Collection: Simplicity
It is important that man dreams, but it is perhaps equally important that he can laugh at his own dreams.Collection: Love
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.Collection: Letting Go
Once 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.Collection: Husband
Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst.Collection: Inner Peace
The Chinese do not draw any distinction between food and medicine.Collection: Medicine
True peace of mind comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think it means a release of energy.Collection: Mean
Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do.Collection: Inspirational
The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world.Collection: Reading
So much of unhappiness, it seems to me, is due to nerves; and bad nerves are the result of having nothing to do, or doing a thing badly, unsuccessfully or incompetently. Of all the unhappy people in the world, the unhappiest are those who have not found something they want to do. True happiness comes to those who do their work well, followed by a refreshing period of rest. True happiness comes from the right amount of work for the day.Collection: Work
The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.Collection: Wise
Happiness has always seemed like a bluebird, and consists of moments.Collection: Moments
We should not expect people to be good, but should make it impossible for them to be bad.Collection: People
Only friendship which can stand occasional plain speaking is worth having.Collection: Friendship
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.Collection: Biblical
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 = WisdomCollection: Dream
Art 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.Collection: Art
I am put on my best behavior, which means the same thing as the most uncomfortable behavior.Collection: Mean
I have a hankering to go back to the Orient and discard my necktie. Neckties strangle clear thinking.Collection: Thinking
All human happiness is sensuous happiness.Collection: Happiness
I rather despise claims to objectivity in philosophy; the point of view is the thing.Collection: Philosophy
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.Collection: Play
In contrast to logic, there is common sense, or still better, the Spirit of Reasonableness.Collection: Common Sense
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!Collection: Wise
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.Collection: Kings
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.Collection: Personality
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.Collection: Dog
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.Collection: Christian
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.Collection: Character
He who is afraid to use an "I" in his writing will never make a good writer.Collection: Writing
There is more hope in a heather rose than in all the tons of Teutonic philosophy.Collection: Philosophy
No man is inherently respectable, but all women are by nature.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Death
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.Collection: People
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.Collection: Letting Go