lin yutang

the moment i discovered lin yutang, he quickly became one of my favorite authors. here are some quotes from his book (see: "the importance of living") , published in 1937, that still linger in my mind:

"when small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set."

i even wondered if that saying logically made any sense *, so i asked chatgpt, and here's the answer i received: "the saying by lin yutang does make logical sense and carries a metaphorical meaning. in literal terms, when the sun is low in the sky, even small objects cast long shadows. this phenomenon occurs because the angle of the sunlight is shallow, causing the shadows to stretch out."

and here are some of my other favs:

"hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence."

"anyone who wishes to learn to enjoy life must find friends of the same type of temperament, and take as much trouble to gain and keep their friendship as wives take to keep their husbands."

"when there is no one i hate to look at in the company and conversation rambles off at a light pace to an unknown destination, and i am spiritually and physically at peace with the world"

"i consider the education of our senses and our emotions rather more important than the education of our ideas."

"the best social philosophies do not claim any greater objective than that the individual human beings living under such a regime shall have happy individual lives. if there are social philosophies which deny the happiness of the individual life as the final goal and aim of civilization, those philosophies are the product of a sick and unbalanced mind."

such discoveries deepen my love for old & underappreciated books even more. you won't regret reading that book!