Source: The Phantom Tollbooth
“Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.”
Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859), Ch. XIII : Character — The True Gentleman
Context: Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side. Dr. Johnson has said that the habit of looking at the best side of a thing is worth more to a man than a thousand pounds a year. And we possess the power, to a great extent, of so exercising the will as to direct the thoughts upon objects calculated to yield happiness and improvement rather than their opposites.
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Samuel Smiles 13
Scottish author 1812–1904Related quotes
“Always look on the bright side of life.”
Eric Idle
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Source: Song written for the film, Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
“I say looking on the bright side of life never killed anybody.”
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“The domineering habit develops side by side with helplessness.”
Maria Montessori
(1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician
Source: The Montessori Method (1912), Ch. 5 : Discipline, p. 100.
Context: The peril of servilism and dependence lies not only in that "useless consuming of life," which leads to helplessness, but in the development of individual traits which indicate all too plainly a regrettable perversion and degeneration of the normal man. I refer to the domineering and tyrannical behaviour with examples of which we are all only too familiar. The domineering habit develops side by side with helplessness. It is the outward sign of the state of feeling of him who conquers through the work of others. Thus it often happens that the master is a tyrant toward his servant. It is the spirit of the task-master toward the slave.