“To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly.”

— Robert Oppenheimer

Letter to his brother Frank (14 October 1929), published in Robert Oppenheimer : Letters and Recollections (1995) edited by Alice Kimball Smith, p. 136
Context: Everyone wants rather to be pleasing to women and that desire is not altogether, though it is very largely, a manifestation of vanity. But one cannot aim to be pleasing to women any more than one can aim to have taste, or beauty of expression, or happiness; for these things are not specific aims which one may learn to attain; they are descriptions of the adequacy of one's living. To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly.

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Robert Oppenheimer 25

American theoretical physicist and professor of physics 1904–1967

Carlos Gershenson (1978) Mexican researcher

Zire Notes (May 2004 - December 2006)

“I will not try to run my own life or the lives of others; that is God's business.”

Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) American translator

Source: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society

“The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others.”

Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement

Letter (September 1940)

“So you say there are spaces, opening wide?
Oh believe me, there's day longer than nights.
And you could be happy, if only you'd try.
But you don't try. No you don't try.”

Conor Oberst (1980) American musician

Insound Tour Support No.12 (2000)

“The happiness of one's own heart alone cannot satisfy the soul; one must try to include, as necessary to one's happiness, the happiness of others.”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

“In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Introduction
1920s, An Autobiography (1927)
Context: In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be. Measuring myself by that standard I must exclaim with Surdas: ' Where is there a wretch So wicked and loathsome as I? I have forsaken my Maker, So faithless have I been.' For it is an unbroken torture to me that I am still so far from him, who, as I fully know, governs every breath of my life, and whose offspring I am. I know that it is the evil passions within that keep me so far from Him, and yet I cannot get away from them.

“As to what to do for the housing industry specifically and are there things that you can do to encourage housing: One is, don't try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

[2011-10-18, Romney says foreclosures should "hit the bottom", Kasie, Hunt, AP/Boston.com, http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/10/18/romney_says_foreclosures_should_hit_the_bottom/]
2011

“You could be happy, the minute you try.
Why won't you try? Oh won't you try?”

Conor Oberst (1980) American musician

The Joy in Forgetting - The Joy in Acceptance
Insound Tour Support No.12 (2000)

“You will never ever be happy if you were trying to change who you are to fit in with others.”

Christian Canlubo (2002) Filipino Internet Entrepreneur

Source: https://twitter.com/canlubochris/status/1260612300135788546 | Christian Canlubo personal Twitter account

Published by Christian Canlubo on his twitter https://twitter.com/canlubochris account

“It is not the smallest use to try to make people good, unless you try at the same time — and they feel that you are trying — to make them happy. And you rarely can make another happy, unless you are happy yourself.”

Dinah Craik (1826–1887) English novelist and poet

Source: A Woman's Thoughts About Women (1858), Ch. 10

“To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly.”

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