Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

(1960) The Lilacs Overgrow (Cleveland: World). He found himself in the wake of the New Culture Movement which criticized China's tradition as feudal and harmful. The town of Lin's birth Banzai has also preserved the original Lin home and turned it into a museum.

His informal but poliLin Yutangd style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West. Lin Yutang (October 10 1895 – March 26 1976) was a Chinese writer translator linguist and inventor.