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
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
All quotes βTrue 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
The frail, vulnerable sounds of which we are capable seem to be essential to a later ability to roar like a lion without scaring everyone to death.
David WhyteRead
And I know now that all the time I was trying to get out of the dust, the fact is, what I am, I am because of the dust. And what I am is good enough. Even for me.
Karen HesseRead
If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience.
Swami VivekanandaRead
There is no such thing as genius, some children are just less damaged than others.
R. Buckminster FullerRead
Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath.
Eckhart TolleRead
Lighthouses donβt go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.
Anne LamottRead