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
Those who are wise won't be busy, and those who are too busy can't be wise.
Interpretation
Wisdom requires time for reflection, while busyness often clouds judgment.
This quote suggests that true wisdom is found in moments of reflection and contemplation, rather than in the frenetic pace of daily life. When one is too busy, they are often distracted and unable to think deeply, thereby inhibiting their capacity for wisdom. Conversely, those who take the time to reflect and not rush through life can develop insights and understanding that lead to wiser decisions.
In practice
In a seminar about effective leadership, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of reflection in decision-making.
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.
This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.
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.
Stunned and still not suffering. Swollen with care and anxiety and still not suffering. Useless, old and full of grief, but still not suffering.
Like a tongue on frozen steel, like flesh in flame β
if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.
Self-esteem isn't everything; it's just that there's nothing without it.
Advice is unfriendly to learning, especially when it is sought. Most of the time when people seek advice, they just want to be heard. Advice at best stops the conversation, definitely inhibits learning, and at worst claims dominance.
We give it up and just look directly with compassion and humor at who we are. Then loneliness is no threat and heartache, no punishment.
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