We should not expect people to be good, but should make it impossible for them to be bad. Lin Yutang More Quotes by Lin Yutang More Quotes From Lin Yutang A solemn funeral is inconceivable to the Chinese mind. Lin Yutang chinese funeral mind Of the many rights of ladies, the best should be to be considered a mother. Lin Yutang should rights mother The three great American vices seem to be efficiency, punctuality, and the desire for achievement and success. They are the things that make the Americans so unhappy and so nervous. Lin Yutang achievement unhappy desire All human beings are like travelers floating down the eternal river of time, embarking at a certain point and disembarking again at another point in order to make room for others waiting below the river to come aboard. Lin Yutang rivers order death After all the allowances are made for the necessity of having a few supermen in our midst - explorers, conquerors, great inventors, great presidents, heroes who change the course of history - the happiest man is still the man of the middle class who has earned a slight means of economic independence, who has done a little, but just a little, for mankind and who is slightly distinguished in his community, but not too distinguished. Lin Yutang hero men mean I have a hankering to go back to the Orient and discard my necktie. Neckties strangle clear thinking. Lin Yutang neckties clear thinking I am put on my best behavior, which means the same thing as the most uncomfortable behavior. Lin Yutang uncomfortable behavior mean All human happiness is sensuous happiness. Lin Yutang human-happiness humans happiness Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought. Lin Yutang signs-and-symbols simplicity depth The end of living is the true enjoyment of it. Lin Yutang enjoyment ends life A man who has to be punctually at a certain place at five o'clock has the whole afternoon ruined for him already. Lin Yutang afternoon clock men No man is inherently respectable, but all women are by nature. Lin Yutang respectability respectable men 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. Lin Yutang play art thinking Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body. Lin Yutang society body philosophy 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. Lin Yutang degenerates pet dog There is more hope in a heather rose than in all the tons of Teutonic philosophy. Lin Yutang heathers rose philosophy 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. Lin Yutang example war world I feel, like all modern Americans, no consciousness of sin and simply do not believe in it. All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does, he will not send me to Hell. That is a final fact of my inner consciousness, and for no religion could I deny its truth. Lin Yutang mother doe believe 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 simple kindness believe Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination. Lin Yutang differences blessing men
