“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
As quoted in Meditations for Living In Balance: Daily Solutions for People Who Do Too Much (2000) by Anne Wilson Schaef, p. 11.
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Tenzin Gyatso112
spiritual leader of Tibet 1935Related quotes
“It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance.”
Tenzin Gyatso (1935) spiritual leader of Tibet
Ocean of Wisdom: Guidelines for Living (1989) ISBN 094066609X
Unsourced variant: In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.
Karen Armstrong (1944) author and comparative religion scholar from Great Britain
The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness (2004)
Context: The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead directly to practical compassion. If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express this sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology. But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, or self-righteous, or if it led you to kill in God's name, it was bad theology. Compassion was the litmus test for the prophets of Israel, for the rabbis of the Talmud, for Jesus, for Paul, and for Muhammad, not to mention Confucius, Lao-tsu, the Buddha, or the sages of the Upanishads.
“If you want to be happy, be.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer
As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 352; this statement appears in late 20th century inspirational books, but with no known citation to original material by Tolstoy.
Disputed
“If you want to be happy, be!”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor
Source: I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame
“Happiness is not having what you want, it is wanting what you have.”
Sheryl Crow (1962) American musician and actress
“Happiness is not having what you want but wanting what you have.”
Jimmy Stewart (1908–1997) American film and stage actor
“Success is getting what you want..
Happiness is wanting what you get.”
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
Variant: Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.