I can see no other reason for the existence of art and poetry and religion except as they tend to restore in us a freshness of vision and more emotio… - Lin Yutang

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the nonessentials.

This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.

man’s dignity consists in the following facts which distinguish man from animals. First, that he has a playful curiosity and a natural genius for exploring knowledge; second, that he has dreams and a lofty idealism (often vague, or confused, or cocky, it is true, but nevertheless worthwhile); third, and still more important, that he is able to correct his dreams by a sense of humor, and thus restrain his idealism by a more robust and healthy realism; and finally, that he does not react to surroundings mechanically and uniformly as animals do, but possesses the ability and the freedom to determine his own reactions and to change surroundings at his will.