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
art thinking play
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.
thinking neckties clear
I have a hankering to go back to the Orient and discard my necktie. Neckties strangle clear thinking.
army thinking color
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, and it is really difficult for human intelligence to guess at a divine intelligence. What we usually end up with by this sort of reasoning is to make God the color-sergeant of our army and to make Him as chauvinistic as ourselves.
believe cutting thinking
In 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.
thinking civilization simplicity
I do not think that any civilization can be called complete until it has progressed from sophistication to unsophistication, and made a conscious return to simplicity of thinking and living.
mean thinking perception
True peace of mind comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think it means a release of energy.
thinking neckties management
Neckties strangle clear thinking.
weekend men order
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 just what to do with life? The answer, that he should order his life so that he can find the greatest happiness in it, is more a practical question, similar to that of how a man should spend his weekend, then a metaphysical proposition as to what is the mystic purpose of his life in the scheme of the universe.
christian wise teaching
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.
people society impossible
We should not expect people to be good, but should make it impossible for them to be bad.
simplicity depth signs-and-symbols
Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought.
mean behavior uncomfortable
Best behavior means the same thing as the most uncomfortable behavior.
wise men hair
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!
play reason characteristics
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.