Lin Yutang Quotes

A vague uncritical idealism always lends itself to ridicule and too much of it might be a danger to mankind, leading it round in a futile wild-goose chase for imaginary ideals.

Lin Yutang

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• Ever since I was really little, I loved performing and being up on stage, and being the entertainment.

  

  Olivia Holt
  • Up
  • Loved
  • Stage

• The government would be able to go to court with respect to newspaper articles, broadcast pieces and the like that they thought were bad or harmful or even against the government and try to block them.

  

  Floyd Abrams
  • Bad
  • Respect
  • Government

• The names are bigger, the show is worldwide, but I get a royal pass into life in the broadcasting business.

  

  Larry King
  • Life
  • Business
  • Royal

• Even among those who I would not count as 'friends,' I have met many people online who have simply commented on my work or are interested by what I do.

  

  Aaron Swartz
  • People
  • Work
  • Friends

• In a way, being born is a sort of ecological contagion. When you have longevity of family, we remember our grandfathers and maybe our great-grandfathers. We somehow don't have the capacity in modern life to remember further than that. All of the ramifications of their lives have an effect on us, and we're not aware of it.

  

  Lance Henriksen
  • Life
  • Great
  • Family

• Pakistan is alarmed by the rising Indian influence in Afghanistan, and fears that an Afghanistan cleansed of the Taliban would be an Indian client state, thus sandwiching Pakistan between two hostile countries. The paranoia of Pakistan about India's supposed dark machinations should never be underestimated.

  

  Salman Rushdie
  • Dark
  • Never
  • Influence

• If your desk isn't cluttered, you probably aren't doing your job.

  

  Harold S. Geneen
  • Job
  • Doing
  • Desk

• I feel it most in my work, because there aren't roles about women who are spiritually evolving. That anyone would even write something like that, something that's worth doing, would be a miracle!

  

  Olympia Dukakis
  • Work
  • Women
  • Doing

• I envy the sensibility in Europe, appreciating beauty in women as they age. I'm going to go that way. I might dye my gray hair for a bit, but beyond that the buck stops. I'm not having any work done.

  

  Rachel Bilson
  • Work
  • Women
  • Done

• You want to believe that there's one relationship in life that's beyond betrayal. A relationship that's beyond that kind of hurt. And there isn't.

  

  Caleb Carr
  • Life
  • Believe
  • Relationship

• Ultimately, I've learned to pride myself on being quirky. I very much adore people who are outcasts, and I've always loved to be around interesting, circus-type people.

  

  Karen Elson
  • People
  • Interesting
  • Myself

• We want a money that some government mandarin can't just whisk into existence with a pen stroke.

  

  Patrick M. Byrne
  • Money
  • Want
  • Government

• Theocratic and military authorities share one thing: they have no sense of humour.

  

  Bassem Youssef
  • Military
  • Share
  • One Thing

• Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

  

  Abraham Lincoln
  • Me
  • Tree
  • Down

• How could anybody think this man was sick? All right, so he had funny dreams. That was better than being plain mean and hateful, like about one quarter of the people she had ever met.

  

  Ursula K. Le Guin
  • People
  • She
  • Funny

• The first day I was in a daze thinking, ‘What am I doing? What’s my role?’ and then slowly we started writing with each other, and it was great. It took me way back to my high school days when I was playing in a rock band.

  

  A. R. Rahman
  • Great
  • Thinking
  • Writing

• The uplifters are forever running around telling blockheads they would do better if they would believe in themselves. But they already do. That is why they are blockheads.

  

  Jack McDevitt
  • Believe
  • Why
  • Running

• «What we have done, which you did not do, is to deceive people.»

  

  Mariano Rajoy
  • People
  • Done

• To live forever should not be an obligation. In fact, eternal life should only be for those who wish for it, because if we are depressed and unhappy with our lives, just the idea of living forever is an unbearable source of suffering.

  

  Claude Vorilhon
  • Life
  • Live
  • Wish

• We have magnificent brains, but we use a great deal of our brilliance to keep ourselves stuck and ignorant, to keep ourselves from not shining. We are so afraid of our beauty and radiance and brilliance because it scared the adults around us when we were children.

  

  Patricia Sun
  • Great
  • Children
  • Beauty

• I wake up every day in a different headspace, so on any given day, my hairstyle will change.

  

  Dawn Angeliqué Richard
  • Up
  • Different

• My major political identity has been as her spouse for the last decade and I like it that way.

  

  Bill Clinton
  • Way
  • Spouse
  • Political identity

• Oh, wad some power the giftie gie usTo see oursel's as ithers see us!It wad frae monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion.

  

  Vanity
  • Power
  • Free

• A vague uncritical idealism always lends itself to ridicule and too much of it might be a danger to mankind, leading it round in a futile wild-goose chase for imaginary ideals.

  

  Lin Yutang