The Pleasures of a NonConformist Author:Lin Yutang "Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist," wrote Emerson. "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." To noted philosopher and scholar Lin Yutang, these lines express, better than anything else, the faith of the individualist - man as the last irreducible, ultimate source of all valid thinking. "There has been a retreat... more » from individualism, from this faith in the individual's dignity and sovereignty...Something of man has been lost," says Dr. Lin. "Let every man have the courage to think for himself. In this capacity to think...to refuse to believe in humbugs, lies the true motive force of all human progress."
The Pleasures of a Non-Conformist is one individualist's thoughts, his probings into the world of things and ideas which excite him, amuse him, amaze him, which concern him deeply, and which arouse his curiosity. From buying a toothbrush to intuitive thinking, from Mao Tsetung's sparrows to the transformation of the Soviet Union into a capitalistic, bourgeois state - this is the range of his musings. These sketches and satires encompass all manner of things: Peking war lords, the "crushed fender" school of modern art, Zen, dogs in New York, football, Adam, Chinese calligraphy, Santa Claus, the emotional life of Confucius, the evolution of the materialistic philosophy, the art of writing, and other matters.
Provocative, amusing, informative, and always entertaining, here are stimulating observations of a professional non-conformist, whose spirit roams far and wide, seeking, penetrating, every aspect of life ancient and modern, Chinese and Occidental. This is Lin Yutang sharing his best.« less