The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighbourhood. From this prison there is no escape. But the moment he takes up a book, he immediately enters a different world, and if it is a good book, he is immediately put in touch with one of the best talkers of the world. This talker leads him on and carries him into a different country or a different age, or unburdens to him some of his personal regrets, or discusses with him some special line or aspect of life that the reader knows nothing about. An ancient author puts him in communion with a dead spirit of long ago, and as he reads along, he begins to imagine what the ancient author looked like and what type of person he was.
Lin Yutang
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 nonessentials.
life wisdom art leaving noble things
This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.
humor life change character thought
'I have done my best.' That is about all the philosophy of living one needs.
philosophy living
It is not in life, but in art that selffulfillment is to be found.
life art found
If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.
manners live afternoon useless learned
Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks.
lives gods
The wise man reads both books and life itself.
life man wise books
Four days before my mother's funeral there was a pouring of rain, and if it continued, as was usual in July in Changchow, the city would be flooded, and there could be no funeral. As most of us came from Shanghai, the delay would have meant some inconvenience. One of my relatives - a rather extreme but not an unusual example of a Christian believer in China - told me that she had faith in God, Who would always provide for His children. She prayed, and the rain stopped, apparently in order the a tiny family of Christians might have their funeral without delay. But the implied idea that, but for us, God would willingly subject the tens of thousands of Changchow inhabitants to a devastating flood, as was often the case, or that He did not stop the rain because of them but because of us who wanted to have a conveniently dry funeral, stuck me as an unbelievable type of selfishness. I cannot imagine God providing for such selfish children. There was also a Christian pastor who wrote the story of his life, attesting to many evidences of the hand of God in his life, for the purpose of glorifying God. One of the evidences adduced was that, when he has got together 600 silver dollars to buy his passage to America, God lowered the rate of exchange on the day this so very important individual was to buy his passage. The difference in the rate of exchange for 600 silver dollars could have been at most ten or twenty dollars, and God was willing to rock the bourses in Paris, London, and New York in order that this curious child of His might save ten or twenty dollars. Let us remind ourselves that this way of glorifying God is not at all unusual in any part of Christendom.
purpose philosophy life idea order faith family days city children story difference america individual day christians selfishness imagine child rain stop delay hand selfish unusual flood london rock part important paris china relatives pagan save funeral god curious christian extreme pastor
If one's bowels move, one is happy, and if they don't move, one is unhappy. That is all there is to it.
happiness philosophy-of-life
Happiness for me is largely a matter of digestion.
philosophy happiness philosophy-of-life
Those who are wise won't be busy, and those who are too busy can't be wise.
philosophy wise busy philosophy-of-life
reading philosophy life
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.
philosophy human-nature reason logic
In contrast to logic, there is common sense, or still better, the Spirit of Reasonableness.
philosophy reason common-sense logic
There is no proper time and place for reading. When the mood for reading comes, one can read anywhere
reading
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