Quotes from Lin Yutang

Even in despair, man must laugh.

It is not dirt but the fear of dirt which is the sign of man's degeneration, and it is dangerous to judge a man's physical and moral sanity by outside standards.

Why should man bother himself so much about salvation, unless he has a feeling of being doomed?

Men resort to talking only when they haven't the power to enforce their convictions upon others.

Business men who are busy the whole day and immediately go to bed after supper, snoring like cows, are not likely to contribute anything to culture.

Few men who have liberated themselves from the fear of God and the fear of death are yet able to liberate themselves from the fear of man.

All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does, he will not send me to Hell.

Of the many rights of ladies, the best should be to be considered a mother.

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

By association with nature's enormities, a man's heart may truly grow big also.

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

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.

True peace of mind comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think it means a release of energy.

The only test of a soul's salvation is its inward happiness.

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.

I have done my best. That is about all the philosophy of living one needs.

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 of philosophy is sound and healthy.

The world I believe is far too serious, and being far too serious ... it has need of a wise and merry philosophy.

I rather despise claims to objectivity in philosophy; the point of view is the thing.

There is more hope in a heather rose than in all the tons of Teutonic philosophy.

Every man must find his own philosophy, his attitude towards life.

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

Such is human psychology that if we don't express our joy, we soon cease to feel it.

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.