Ich schweige zu vielem still; denn ich mag die Menschen nicht irre machen, und bin wohl zufrieden, wenn sie sich freuen, da wo ich mich argere=--I keep silent to a great extent, for I don't choose to lead others into error, and am well content if they are happy in matters about which I vex myself.
By many a happy accident.
Felices ter et amplius / Quos irrupta tenet copula, nec, malis / Divulsus qu?rimoniis, / Suprema citius solvet amor die=--Thrice happy they, and more than thrice, whom an unbroken link binds together, and whom love, unimpaired by evil rancour, will not sunder before their last day.
But who, if he be called upon to face Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined Great issues, good or bad for humankind, Is happy as a lover.
Married people, for instance, are demonstrably happier than single people; does this mean that marriage causes happiness? Not necessarily. The data suggest that happy people are more likely to get married in the first place. As one researcher memorably put it, “If you’re grumpy, who the hell wants to marry you?
The happy man is he who distinguishes the boundary between desires and delight, and stands firmly on the higher ground.
I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.
Doing good is the only certainly happy action of a man's life.
I was always an early riser. Happy the man who is! Every morning day comes to him with a virgin's love, full of bloom and freshness. The youth of nature is contagious, like the gladness of a happy child.--_Bulwer-Lytton._
There are only three classes of people--those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him; and those who live without either seeking or finding him--the first, rational and happy; the second, unhappy and rational; the third, foolish and unhappy.
Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future.
What a view a man must have of this universe who thinks he can swallow it all, who is not doubly and trebly happy that he can keep it from swallowing him!
There is no greater sorrow Than to be mindful of the happy time In misery.
If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy. [Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson , 10:342.]
It is by not always thinking of yourself, if you can manage it, that you might somehow be happy. Until you make room in your life for someone as important to you as yourself, you will always be searching and lost ...
In God the blessed man finds the love that welcomes. There is the sunny place. There care is loosed and toil forgotten. There is the joyous freedom, the happy calm, the rest, and renewing of our strength--at home with God.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
Fortunatas et ille deos qui novit agrestes=--Happy the man who knows the rural gods.
If in the course of our life we see that done by others for which we ourselves at one time felt a vocation, and which we were, with much else, compelled to relinquish, then the noble feeling comes in, that only humanity altogether is the true man, and that the individual can only rejoice and be happy when he has the heart= (_Muth_) =to feel himself in the whole.
Even if the wealth and power be well distributed throughout a community, its members will not be happy unless they are inwardly so, and obviously where the distribution is bad, where the few have a vast superfluity and the many are consumed by anxiety or want, or where a few controllers can exercise their will over the many, society has failed, even though its total wealth and power be increased. [ Survivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church . Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1992, p. 45.]
All places that the eye of heaven visits Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
"Hearken" and "do," that ye may "live" and "possess." This is a universal and abiding principle. It was true for Israel, and it is true for us. The pathway of life and the true secret of possession is simple obedience to the holy commandments of God. We see this all through the inspired volume, from cover to cover. God has given us His Word, not to speculate upon it or discuss it, but that we may obey it. And it is as we, through grace, yield a hearty and happy obedience to our Father's statutes and judgments, that we tread the bright pathway of life, and enter into the reality of all that God has treasured up for us in Christ.--_C. H. M._
I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind. And it is just this faith of mine that they laugh at. But how can I help believing it? I have seen the truth — it is not as though I had invented it with my mind, I have seen it, seen it, and the living image of it has filled my soul for ever.
Elysian beauty, melancholy grace, Brought from a pensive though a happy place.
God, through the voice of Nature, calls the mass of men to be happy; He calls a few among them to the grander task of being severely but serenely sad.
I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.
That man is always happy who is in the presence of something which he cannot know to the full, which he is always going on to know.
Raum ist in der kleinsten Hutte / Fur ein glucklich liebend Paar=--There is room in the smallest cottage for a happy loving pair.
La cour ne rend pas content, elle empeche qu'on ne le soit ailleurs=--The court does not make a man happy, and it prevents him from being so elsewhere.
The Christian religion is that alone which renders man lovable and happy at once. Living in the world he cannot be lovable and happy at the same time.
Maybe you should accept the fact that you've tried to be someone you're not for so long that no matter what you did, those bastards were never happy. They were never satisfied. They never gave a damn, did they?
You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She's not perfect—you aren't either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break—her heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her, don't analyze and don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there.
In such a world as this a man who is rich in himself is like a bright, warm, happy room at Christmastide, while without are the frost and snow of a December night.
Auf dem Grund des Glaubenmeeres / Liegt die Perle der Erkenntniss; Heil dem Taucher, der sie findet=--At the bottom of the faith-sea lies the pearl of knowledge; happy the diver that finds it.
The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
He who cheerfully endures contempt and is happy under crosses and affliction, partakes of the humility and sufferings of Our Lord.--ST. MECHTILDIS.
A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.
To give the world more than it gives us, to love it more than it loves us, and never to make suit for its applause, ensures a peaceful life and a happy departure.
A man cannot be happy if he be malicious, envious, or ill-tempered.
She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad. And that’s important—you know
Let him count himself happy who lives remote from the gods of this world.
Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas=--Happy he who has succeeded in learning the causes of things.
I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and I believe in miracles
The Preacher shows that man without God is wholly ignorant, and subject to inevitable misery. For to will and to be powerless is to be miserable. Now he wills to be happy, and to be assured of some truth, yet he can neither know, nor not desire to know. He cannot even doubt.
Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.
We deem those happy who, from their experience of life, have learned to bear its ills without descanting on the burden.
Zwei sind der Wege, auf welchen der Mensch zur Tugend emporstrebt, / Schliesst sich der eine dir zu, thut sich der andre dir auf, / Handelnd erreicht der Gluckliche sie, der Leidende duldend; / Wohl ihm, den sein Geschick liebend auf beiden gefuhrt=--There are two roads on which man strives to virtue; one closes against thee, the other opens to thee; the favoured man wins his way by acting, the unfortunate by endurance; happy he whom his destiny guides him lovingly on both.
We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier.--_Lamotte._
I know exactly what my future looks like and I'm okay with it. I'm happy to live in solitude. I'm not afraid of spending the rest of my life in the company of my own person. I do not afraid loneliness.
'Tis my opinion 'tis necessary to be happy, that we think no place more agreeable than that where we are.
He is a happy man that hath a true friend at his need, but he is more truly happy that hath no need of his friend.
Like blude, like gude, like age, mak' the happy marriage.
Jeune, et dans l'age heureux qui meconnait la crainte=--Young, and at that happy age which knows no fear.
In a drear-nighted December, Too happy, happy tree, Thy branches ne'er remember Their green felicity.
On n'est jamais si heureux, ni si malheureux qu'on se l'imagine=--People are never either so happy or so miserable as they imagine.
It is fruition, and not possession, that renders us happy.
_Of Self-love._--The nature of self-love and of this human 'I' is to love self only, and consider self only. But what can it do? It cannot prevent the object it loves from being full of faults and miseries; man would fain be great and sees that he is little, would fain be happy, and sees that he is miserable, would fain be perfect, and sees that he is full of imperfections, would fain be the object of the love and esteem of men, and sees that his faults merit only their aversion and contempt. The embarrassment wherein he finds himself produces in him the most unjust and criminal passion imaginable, for he conceives a mortal hatred against that truth which blames him and convinces him of his faults. Desiring to annihilate it, yet unable to destroy it in its essence, he destroys it as much as he can in his own knowledge, and in that of others; that is to say, he devotes all his care to the concealment of his faults, both from others and from himself, and he can neither bear that others should show them to him, nor that they should see them.
Blessed is he who is made happy by the sound of a rat-tat.
Nur eine Mutter weiss allein, / Was lieben heisst und glucklich sein=--A mother alone knows what it is to love and be happy.
See, it's not that I'm jealous of others. I just don't understand why they can be happy and I can't.
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
A man passes his life without weariness in playing every day for a small stake. Give him each morning, on condition he does not play, the money he might possibly win, and you make him miserable. It will be said, perhaps, that he seeks the amusement of play, and not the winnings. Make him then play for nothing, he will not be excited over it, and will soon be wearied. Mere diversion then is not his pursuit, a languid and passionless amusement will weary him. He must grow warm in it, and cheat himself by thinking that he is made happy by gaining what he would despise if it were given him not to play; and must frame for himself a subject of passion and excitement to employ his desire, his wrath, his fear, as children are frightened at a face they themselves have daubed.
Oh, pity human woe! 'T is what the happy to the unhappy owe.
My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.
And through the heat of conflict keeps the law In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw.
States are to be called happy and noble in so far as they settle rightly who is slave and who free.
I'll just have them change the entry in the demonology textbook from 'almost extinct' to 'not extinct enough for Alec. He prefers his monsters really, really extinct.' Will that make you happy?
Qu'un joueur est heureux! sa poche est un tresor! / Sous ses heureuses mains le cuivre devient or=--How happy is a gambler! His pocket is a treasure-store; in his lucky hands copper turns into gold.
Nicht an die Guter hange dein Herz, / Die das Leben verganglich zieren! / Wer besitzt, der lerne verlieren; / Wer im Gluck ist, der lerne den Schmerz!=--Let not thy heart cling to the things which for so short a time deck out thy life. Let him who has, learn to lose, and him who is happy, familiarise himself with what may give pain.
Domi manere convenit felicibus=--Those who are happy at home should remain at home.
She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than ladies described in romance, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver or their eyes.
Defining philosophy as “an activity, attempting by means of discussion and reasoning, to make life happy,” he believed that happiness is gained through the achievement of moral self-sufficiency (autarkeia) and freedom from disturbance (ataraxia). The main obstacles to the goal of tranquillity of mind are our unnecessary fears and desires, and the only way to eliminate these is to study natural science. The most serious disturbances of all are fear of death, including fear of punishment after death, and fear of the gods. Scientific inquiry removes fear of death by showing that the mind and spirit are material and mortal, so that they cannot live on after we die: as Epicurus neatly and logically puts it: “Death…is nothing to us: when we exist, death is not present; and when death is present, we do not exist. Consequently it does not concern either the living or the dead, since for the living it is non-existent and the dead no longer exist” (Letter to Menoeceus 125). As for fear of the gods, that disappears when scientific investigation proves that the world was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, that the gods live outside the world and have no inclination or power to intervene in its affairs, and that irregular phenomena such as lightning, thunder, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes have natural causes and are not manifestations of divine anger. Every Epicurean would have agreed with Katisha in the Mikado when she sings: But to him who’s scientific There’s nothing that’s terrific In the falling of a flight of thunderbolts! So the study of natural science is the necessary means whereby the ethical end is attained. And that is its only justification: Epicurus is not interested in scientific knowledge for its own sake, as is clear from his statement that “if we were not disturbed by our suspicions concerning celestial phenomena, and by our fear that death concerns us, and also by our failure to understand the limits of pains and desires, we should have no need of natural science” (Principal Doctrines 11). Lucretius’ attitude is precisely the same as his master’s: all the scientific information in his poem is presented with the aim of removing the disturbances, especially fear of death and fear of the gods, that prevent the attainment of tranquillity of mind. It is very important for the reader of On the Nature of Things to bear this in mind all the time, particularly since the content of the work is predominantly scientific and no systematic exposition of Epicurean ethics is provided.25 Epicurus despised philosophers who do not make it their business to improve people’s moral condition: “Vain is the word of a philosopher by whom no human suffering is cured. For just as medicine is of no use if it fails to banish the diseases of the body, so philosophy is of no use if it fails to banish the suffering of the mind” (Usener fr. 221). It is evident that he would have condemned the majority of modern philosophers and scientists.
It is certain that there is no good without the knowledge of God, that only as we approach him are we happy, and that the ultimate good is to know him certainly; that we are unhappy in proportion as we are removed from him, and that the greatest evil would be certainty of the opposite.
He may rate himself a happy man who lives remote from the gods of this world.
There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! / The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
If I may speak of myself (the only person of whom I can speak with certainty), _my_ happy hours have far exceeded, and far exceed, the scanty numbers of the caliph of Spain; and I shall not scruple to add that many of them are due to the pleasing labor of the present composition.--_Gibbon._
How many people I have seen who would have plucked cannon-balls out of the muzzles of guns with their bare hands, and yet had not courage enough to be happy.--_Théophile Gautier._
A man or woman is seldom happy unless he or she is sustaining him or herself and making a contribution to others.
I am always as happy as I can be in meeting a man in whose society feelings are developed and thoughts defined.
You must accustom yourself more and more to the thought that here is not our abiding city, that all that we call ours here is only lent, not given us, and that if the sorrow for those we have lost remains the same, we must yet acknowledge with gratitude to God the great blessing of having enjoyed so many years with those whom He gave us, as parents, or children, or friends. One forgets so easily the happy years one has had with those who were the nearest to us. Even these years of happiness, however short they may have been, were only given us, we had not deserved them. I know well there is no comfort for this pain of parting: the wound always remains, but one learns to bear the pain, and learns to thank God for what He gave, for the beautiful memories of the past, and the yet more beautiful hope for the future. If a man has lent us anything for several years, and at last takes it back, he expects gratitude, not anger; and if God has more patience with our weakness than men have, yet murmurs and complaints for the life which He measured out for us as is best for us, are not what He expected from us. A spirit of resignation to God's will is our only comfort, the only relief under the trials God lays upon us, and with such a spirit the heaviest as well as the lightest trials of life are not only bearable, but useful, and gratitude to God and joy in life and death remain untroubled.
This day is call'd — the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and sees old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends, And say, "To-morrow is Saint Crispian;" Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars, And say, "These wounds I had on Crispin's day." Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, Familiar in his mouth as household words, — Harry the King, Bedford, and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd, — We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he to-day that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England, now a-bed, Shall think themselves accurs'd, they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap, whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. King Henry V as portrayed in Henry V by
Children are excellent physiognomists and soon discover their real friends. Luttrell calls them all lunatics, and so in fact they are. What is childhood but a series of happy delusions?--_Sydney Smith._
Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so.
To be happy means to be sufficient for one's self.
He who thinks well of others is a happy man.
_Objection._--Those who hope for salvation are so far happy, but they have as a counterpoise the fear of hell.
No man can be sorry for seeking advice, or happy if he blindly follows out his own thoughts.
Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
The God of Christians is not a God who is simply the author of mathematical truths, or of the order of the elements, as is the god of the heathen and of Epicureans. Nor is he merely a God who providentially disposes the life and fortunes of men, to crown his worshippers with length of happy years. Such was the portion of the Jews. But the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Christians, is a God of love and consolation, a God who fills the souls and hearts of his own, a God who makes them feel their inward wretchedness, and his infinite mercy, who unites himself to their inmost spirit, filling it with humility and joy, with confidence and love, rendering them incapable of any end other than himself.