Lin Yutang Quotes

What is Hope?Hope is that inner dynamic that compels us to explore and pursue the expectations built into the human condition. Hope was born the day the first human beings discovered the first bridge and decided not to jump off the bridge in despair, but to cross it

There is humor in the darkest of moments - People who I have loved and passed away, and very high stake situations where you can't help but laugh. I think that's very human.

When things are really dismal, you can laugh, or you can cave in completely.

I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.

Comedy is an escape, not from truth but from despair; a narrow escape into faith.

Even with the most horrendous things that happen and the tremendous pain that people have to deal with, they still laugh, because I think that's what it means to be human.

If you can neither accept it or change it, try to laugh at it.

Hope was an instinct only the reasoning human mind could kill. An animal never knew despair.

I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all.

Feeling different, feeling alienated, feeling persecuted, feeling that the only way to deal with the world is to laugh - because if you don't laugh you're going to cry and never stop crying - that's probably what's responsible for the Jews having developed such a great sense of humor. The people who had the greatest reason to weep, learned more than anyone else how to laugh.

This is an ugly and mean world, and only to spite it we mustn't weep. If you want to know, this is the constant source of my good spirit, of my humor. Not to cry, out of spite, only to laugh out of spite, only to laugh.

In life you have two choices. You can laugh or you can cry. You have to laugh, you have to.

If you can't laugh when things go bad--laugh and put on a little carnival--then you're either dead or wishing you were.

It is possible to suffer and despair an entire lifetime and still not give up the art of laughter.

The whole point of growing up is learning to stay on the laughing side.

I suppose if we couldn't laugh at things that don't make sense, we couldn't react to a lot of life.

They say that if you get bored enough with calamity you can learn to laugh.

We have to laugh at how hard life can be and how screwed up we can be at times... It's a really freeing process when you're not hitting the jokes too hard.

Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him.

I think there's nothing better than laughing in life, so that's nice, to be thought of as someone who can make someone laugh. It's 'cause I think life is hard. You know, my dad was a really silly man. A great Irish silly man. And that's fine.

It's good to be able to laugh at yourself and the problems you face in life. Sense of humor can save you.

Everything will be okay. I have a sticker on my laptop that says that.

Is everything funny? For me, yes. There's a positive to every negative. Even my divorce? For me, yes. If you go back and look at it, why it happened or how it happened, there's something in there that'll make you laugh.

Why not try thinking of your life as hilarious rather than nightmarish?

Even in your darkest moments, you'll think of something that'll crack you up.