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
war world lasts
Is it not tragic, for example, that while in the last World War almost everyone believed it was the war to end all wars and wanted to make it so, now in this Second World War almost no writer that I have read dares even suggest that this is the war to end all wars, or act on that belief? We have lost the courage to hope.
book world given
There are no books in this world that everybody must read, but only books that a person must read at a certain time in a given place under given circumstances and at a given period of his life.
facts world modern
China is the greatest mystifying and stupefying fact in the modern world.
reading men world
The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world.
people unhappy world
Of all the unhappy people in the world, the unhappiest are those who have not found something they want to do.
tea world quiet
There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.
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.
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.
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.
thinking neckties clear
I have a hankering to go back to the Orient and discard my necktie. Neckties strangle clear thinking.
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!