“How many of us are able to distinguish between the odors of noon and midnight, or of winter and summer, or of a windy spell and a still one? If man is so generally less happy in the cities than in the country, it is because all these variations and nuances of sight and smell and sound are less clearly marked and lost in the general monotony of gray walls and cement pavements.”

— Lin Yutang , book The Importance of Living

Source: The Importance of Living (1937), p. 129

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Lin Yutang 67

Chinese writer 1895–1976

Stef Penney book The Tenderness of Wolves

Source: The Tenderness of Wolves

“How many lives we live in one,
And how much less than one, in all.”

Alice Cary (1820–1871) American writer

Life's Mysteries; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 442.

“Country acquaintances are charming only in the country and only in the summer. In the city in winter they lose half of their appeal.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

The Story of Mme. NN or Lady N—'s Story or A Lady's Story (1887)

“From the winter’s gray despair,
From the summer’s golden languor,
Death, the lover of Life,
Frees us for ever.”

William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) English poet, critic and editor

Source: In Hospital (1908), p. 20

“But of course there's no logic to San Francisco generally, a city built with putty and pipe cleaners, rubber cement and colored construction paper. It's the work of fairies, elves, happy children with new crayons”

Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Source: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

“The more one pleases generally, the less one pleases profoundly.”

Krister Stendahl (1921–2008) Swedish theologian

“Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.”

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American playwright and novelist

As quoted in "The Notation of the Heart" by Edmund Fuller, in The American Scholar Reader (1960) edited by Hiram Hayden and Betsy Saunders

“When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate.”

N. R. Narayana Murthy (1946) Indian businessman

Life lessons from Narayana Murthy (2013)

“Because certain elements of geometry have for a long time been included in the general course of education, every educated man is able to distinguish between the practical task of the land surveyor and the theoretical investigation of the geometer. The corresponding distinction between the theory of probability and statistics has yet to be recognized.”

Richard von Mises (1883–1953) Austrian physicist and mathematician

Second Lecture, The Elements of the Theory of Probability, p. 32
Probability, Statistics And Truth - Second Revised English Edition - (1957)

“All is more or less proper to serve as a common measure, in proportion as it is more or less in general use, of a more similar quality, and more easy to be divided into aliquot parts.”

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727–1781) French economist

§ 39
Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth (1766)
Context: All is more or less proper to serve as a common measure, in proportion as it is more or less in general use, of a more similar quality, and more easy to be divided into aliquot parts. All is more or less applicable for the purpose of a general pledge of exchange, in proportion as it is less susceptible of decay or alteration in quantity or quality.

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Lin Yutang 67

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