“Intent and action are the fuel and vehicle in the journey of creation.”
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 110
Variant: One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be "happy" is not included in the plan of "Creation."
Source: 1920s, Civilization and Its Discontents (1929), Ch. 2, as translated by James Strachey, p.53
“Intent and action are the fuel and vehicle in the journey of creation.”
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 110
“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”
"The Way Of Chuang Tzu".
The Way of Chuang-Tzŭ (1965)
Context: The secret of the way proposed by Chuang Tzu is … not the accumulation of virtue and merit … but wu wei, the non-doing, or non-action, which is not intent upon results and is not concerned with consciously laid plans or deliberately organized endeavors: "My greatest happiness consists precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness... Perfect joy is to be without joy... if you ask 'what ought to be done' and 'what ought not to be done' on earth to produce happiness, I answer that these questions do not have [a fixed and predetermined] answer" to suit every case. If one is in harmony with Tao-the cosmic Tao, "Great Tao" — the answer will make itself clear when the time comes to act, for then one will act not according to the human and self-conscious mode of deliberation, but accord ing to the divine and spontaneous mode of wu wei, which is the mode of action of Tao itself, and is therefore the source of all good.
The other way, the way of conscious striving, even though it may claim to be a way of virtue, is fundamentally a way of self-aggrandizement, and it is consequently bound to come into conflict with Tao. Hence it is self-destructive, for "what is against Tao will cease to be."
“There is nothing wrong with God's plan that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.”
Source: Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder: On Wisdom and Virtues
“Man is a creation of desire, not a creation of need.”
The Psychoanalysis of Fire, ch. 2, "Fire and Reverie" (1938)
“I've always been a happy priest; I plan on being a happy bishop.”
Bishop Mark O'Connell: 'I plan on being a happy bishop https://thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=177277 (2016)