#pine

The kind of happy I was that day at the Vet when "Hawk" Dawson actually doffed his red "C" cap to me, and everyone cheered and practically convulsed into tears - you can't patent that. It was one shining moment of glory that was instantly gone. Whereas life, real life, is different and can't even be appraised as simply "happy", but only in terms of "Yes, I'll take it all, thanks" or "No, I believe I won't." Happy, as my poor father used to say, is a lot of hooey. Happy is a circus clown, a sitcom, a greeting card. Life, though, life's about something sterner. But also something better. A lot better. Believe me. ↗

— Richard Ford

#life #life

Tout bonheur est un chef-d'oeuvre: la moindre erreur le fausse, la moindre hésitation l'altère, la moindre lourder le dépare, la moindre sottise l'abêtit. ↗

— Marguerite Yourcenar

#life #wisdom #life

Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#happiness #learn #happy

Do not think that one has to be sad in order to be militant, even though the thing one is fighting is abominable. ↗

— Michel Foucault

#optimism #resistance #struggle #optimism

Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. ↗

— George Washington

#happiness #honor #honor

The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does. ↗

— J.M. Barrie

#secret

it was dawning on me how uphill a poet's path was, and I confessed to her that if I had to be the choice between being happy or being a poet, I'd choose to be happy. ↗

— Mary Karr

#poet #writing-life #life

When you are relaxed about where you are at in life, things tend to flow more fluidly. It is as if you poke three holes in a bucket of water. The same amount of water is going to flow out the holes whether you let it flow or you shake the bucket. The difference is the amount of turmoil on the inside of the bucket! ↗

— Jennifer O'Neill

#happiness-positive-outlook #motivational-books #positive-thinking #life

The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belongs to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity. ↗

— Graham Greene

#pain #end

Life isn't about counting what you've earned or what you've done for others. I think life is in those in-between moments when you do something, and you feel really, truly happy just by doing it. ↗

— Snigdha Rai

#life #life