Best Lin Yutang Sayings
- We should not expect people to be good, but should make it impossible for them to be bad. Bad
- 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… Art
- 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,… Across
- 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… All
- 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… All
- 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… Bravely
- 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… Achieve
- Everything that we think God has in his mind necessarily proceeds from our own mind; it is what we imagine to be in God's mind,… Army
- Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body. Any
- No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. Adventure
- If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live. Afternoon
- 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… Art
- 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… Justice
- Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks. Amount
- Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks. Cooking
- 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. Country
- The wise man reads both books and life itself. Book
- This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought. Change
- If man be sensible and one fine morning, while he is lying in bed, counts at the tips of his fingers how many things in… Bed
- The busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy. Busy
- There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life. Contemplation
- 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… Act
- What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child? Ate
- The purpose of a short story is ... that the reader shall come away with the satisfactory feeling that a particular insight into human character… Awakened
- Those who are wise won't be busy, and those who are too busy can't be wise. Busy