Reality - Dreams = Animal Being Reality + Dreams = A Heart-Ache (usually called Idealism) Reality + Humor = Realism (also called Conservatism) Dreams - Humor = Fanaticism Dreams + Humor = Fantasy Reality + Dreams + Humor = Wisdom
Lin YutangRead
This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.
Interpretation
Humor serves as a transformative tool for our thinking and perspective.
Lin Yutang suggests that humor plays a critical role in altering how we perceive and process thoughts. By introducing humor into our mindset, we can shift our perspective, rethink our mindset, and potentially even alleviate stress or negativity, showcasing humor's essential function in human psychology.
In practice
During a speech about mental health, I used this quote to emphasize the role of humor in coping with challenges.
Reality - Dreams = Animal Being Reality + Dreams = A Heart-Ache (usually called Idealism) Reality + Humor = Realism (also called Conservatism) Dreams - Humor = Fanaticism Dreams + Humor = Fantasy Reality + Dreams + Humor = Wisdom
True peace of mind comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think it means a release of energy.
All women's dresses, in every age and country, are merely variations on the eternal struggle between the admitted desire to dress and the unadmitted desire to undress.
If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.
It is that unoccupied space which makes a room habitable, as it is our leisure hours which make life endurable.
The wise man reads both books and life itself.
If I could only write, I'd write a nasty letter to the mayor, if he could only read.
Whether a party can have much success without a woman present I must ask others to decide, but one thing is certain, no party is any fun unless seasoned with folly.
When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.
Griddle cakes, pancakes, hot cakes, flapjacks: why are there four names for grilled batter and only one word for love?
Bill Door was impressed. Miss Flitworth could actually give the word "revenue", which had two vowels and one diphthong, all the peremptoriness of the word "scum.
I said, "I do not fear those pants with nobody inside them." I said, and said, and said those words. I said them but I lied them.
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