“Our people have opinions and creeds and prejudices and ideas but as yet no philosophy.”

—  Pearl S. Buck

Source: My Several Worlds (1954), p. 244
Context: Chinese were born, it seemed to me, with an accumulated wisdom, a natural sophistication, an intelligent naiveté, and unless they were transplanted too young, these qualities ripened in them. To talk even with a farmer and his family, none of whom could read or write, was often to hear a philosophy at once sane and humorous. If ever I am homesick for China, now that I am home in my own country, it is when I discover here no philosophy. Our people have opinions and creeds and prejudices and ideas but as yet no philosophy.

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Pearl S. Buck photo
Pearl S. Buck 95
American writer 1892–1973

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