A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, lov...
Thus, Marlowe posed the silent question: could aspiring Icarus be happy with a toilsome life on land managing a plough with plodding oxen having once tasted the weightless bliss of flight?
Pleasure” is different from “happiness”. It has its own definition. Pleasure may or may not come from hard work; Pleasure may or may not come from sin; However, happiness is always divine and comes from fulfillment!
If you have mindfulness, if you feel safe, you recognize that you have plenty of conditions to be happy already, and that you don't need to run into the future in order to get a few more conditions.
A thankful and a contented spirit is a continual feast. We ought to be contented, and we shall be contented, if we are in the habit of seeing God in everything, and living upon Him day by day. Oh, for a spirit of true thankfulness!
Live your life with courageous integrity. Do the right thing, not the easy thing.
It’s easy to be brave when everything is going your way. When the going gets tough, it takes courage to follow the path you believe in.
Challenge your assumptions and identify your limiting beliefs. Every time you find yourself thinking that you can’t do something, ask yourself, ‘Why not?
Just because there are things you still want, that doesn’t mean you can’t feel gratitude for all the wealth and abundance already in your life.
You can’t make someone do something just because you want them to. What you do have, however, is the opportunity to influence their choices.
Being a control freak is a sign of a vulnerable self-esteem. The better you feel about yourself the less you need to control everything around you.
Be there when you are there. Don’t try to juggle all the roles in your life. Focus on the role you are playing and do it to the best of your ability.
Worrying doesn’t change anything. Focus your energy on the outcome you do want and then do what you can to make it happen.
Most of the things that go wrong in life don’t have a lasting impact. Remind yourself that if it won’t matter in ten years’ time, it doesn’t matter today.
Being optimistic isn’t about believing nothing can go wrong. An optimist acknowledges what can go wrong but expects things to go right.
The happy man needs nothing and no one. Not that he holds himself aloof, for indeed he is in harmony with everything and everyone; everything is "in him"; nothing can happen to him. The same may also be said for the contemplative person; he needs him...
People don't love each other at our age, Marthe—they please each other, that's all. Later on, when you're old and impotent, you can love someone. At our age, you just think you do. That's all it is.
You don't ask people with knives in their stomachs what would make them happy; happiness is no longer the point. It's all about survival; it's all about whether you pull the knife out and bleed to death or keep it in...
The music is happy; the laughter is happy. Everything feels ecstatic and desperate. Blurrily, I think of sex, and I think of death. I realize: Every moment of joyous celebration contains the seed of death.
And hard times are good in their own way, too. Because the only way you can achieve true happiness is if you experience true sadness as well. It's all about light and shade. Balance.
He looked out of the window to think, because without a window he couldn’t think. Or Maybe it was the other way round: where there was a window, he automatically started to think. Then he wrote, ‘When I grow up, I am going to be happy.
