QuoteProject
Those who are wise won't be busy, and those who are too busy can't be wise.
Lin Yutang
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

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.

Themes

WisdomBusynessReflectionTimeUnderstanding

In practice

Example use cases

In a seminar about effective leadership, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of reflection in decision-making.

More from Lin Yutang

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
True peace of mind comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think it means a release of energy.
Lin YutangRead
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.
Lin YutangRead
This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.
Lin YutangRead
If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.
Lin YutangRead
It is that unoccupied space which makes a room habitable, as it is our leisure hours which make life endurable.
Lin YutangRead

Similar quotes

Stunned and still not suffering. Swollen with care and anxiety and still not suffering. Useless, old and full of grief, but still not suffering.
Leonard CohenRead
Like a tongue on frozen steel, like flesh in flame β€”
J. K. RowlingRead
if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.
C. S. LewisRead
Self-esteem isn't everything; it's just that there's nothing without it.
Gloria SteinemRead
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.
Peter BlockRead
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.
Pema ChodronRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Lin Yutang | QuoteProject