“Happiness, n. An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.”
Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Heart of the Matter
“Happiness, n. An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.”
Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Kurt Vonnegut book God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
"Eliot Rosewater" to a group of volunteer firemen.
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)
“Heart of oak are our ships,
Heart of oak are our men;
We always are ready.”
David Garrick (1717–1779) English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer
Hearts of Oak. Compare: "Our ships were British oak, And hearts of oak our men", S. J. Arnold, Death of Nelson.
“The difference between misery and happiness depends on what we do with our attention.”
Sharon Salzberg (1952) American writer
Source: Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)
Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), The Preponderance of Egoism, p. 123
“The love is happiness to be only a rotting cloth in the wound of a stranger.”
Doina Ruști (1957) Romanian Writer
Source: The Phanariot Manuscript https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuscrisul_fanariot
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
"The Science to Save Us from Science," The New York Times Magazine (19 March 1950)
1950s
Context: All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can only be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
“Friends love misery… our misery is what endears us to our friends.”
Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic
How to Save Your Own Life (1977)
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party
1930s, From the film Triumph of the Will (1935)
“Love's great (and sole) originality is to make happiness indistinct from misery.”
Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist
Anathemas and Admirations (1987)