Quotes by Lin Yutang

About Lin Yutang:

Lin Yutang was 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.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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.

Lin Yutang

In contrast to logic, there is common sense, or still better, the Spirit of Reasonableness.

Lin Yutang

Reading books in one's youth is like looking at the moon through a crevice; reading books in middle age is like looking at the moon in one's courtyard; and reading books in old age is like looking at the moon on an open terrace.

Lin Yutang

If one's bowels move, one is happy, and if they don't move, one is unhappy. That is all there is to it.

Lin Yutang

The moment a student gives up his right of personal judgment, he is in for accepting all the humbugs of life

Lin Yutang

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 = Wisdom

Lin Yutang

Those who are wise won't be busy, and those who are too busy can't be wise.

Lin Yutang

There is a certain proper and luxurious way of lying in bed. Confucius, that great artist of life, "never lay straight" in bed, "like a corpse", but always curled up on one side. I believe one of the greatest pleasures of life is to curl up one's leg...

Lin Yutang

Happiness for me is largely a matter of digestion.

Lin Yutang

There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.

Lin Yutang

For a Westerner, it is usually sufficient for a proposition to be logically sound. For a Chinese it is not sufficient that a proposition be logically correct, but it must be at the same time in accord with human nature.

Lin Yutang

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.

Lin Yutang

What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?

Lin Yutang

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 this life truly will give him enjoyment, invariably he will find food is the first one.

Lin Yutang

When Small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.

Lin Yutang

This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.

Lin Yutang

Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks.

Lin Yutang

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.

Lin Yutang

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.

Lin Yutang

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.

Lin Yutang

Author Bio

  • NameLin Yutang
  • DescriptionChinese writer
  • BornOctober 10, 1895
  • DiedMarch 26, 1976
  • CountryChina; People's Republic Of China
  • ProfessionLexicographer; Linguist; Author; Translator; Philosopher