„The weak fear happiness itself. They can harm themselves on cotton wool. Sometimes they are wounded even by happiness.“
Source: No Longer Human
Osamu Dazai38
Japanese author 1909 - 1948Related quotes
„Happiness is often presented as being very dull but, he thought, lying awake, that is because dull people are sometimes very happy and intelligent people can and do go around making themselves and everyone else miserable.“
— Ernest Hemingway, book Islands in the Stream
Pt. 1: Bimini, Section 8
Islands in the Stream (1970)
„Happy is he that grows wise by other men's harms.“
— James Howell Anglo-Welsh historian and writer 1594 - 1666
Lexicon Tetraglotton (1660)
„.. that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself“
— Jane Austen, book Sense and Sensibility
Source: Sense and Sensibility
„Have you not sometimes seen happiness? Yes, the happiness of others.“
— Arsène Houssaye French writer 1814 - 1896
Source: James O'Donnell Bennett (1908) When Good Fellows Get Together, p. 156
„Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords“
— Samuel Johnson English writer 1709 - 1784
Letter, June 8, 1762 [to an unnamed recipient], p. 103
Vol I
Context: Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken.
„Happiness will never come if it's a goal in itself; happiness is a by-product of a commitment to worthy causes.“
— Norman Vincent Peale American writer 1898 - 1993
The Power of Positive Living (1992), p. 63
„Were I to buy this life of pleasure and this only chance at happiness with a few little dangers, where would be the harm? And wouldn’t it still be fortunate to find a weak excuse to give her proof of my love?“
— Stendhal, book The Charterhouse of Parma
Quand je devrais acheter cette vie de délices et cette chance unique de bonheur par quelques petits dangers, où serait le mal? Et ne serait-ce pas encore un bonheur que de trouver ainsi une faible occasion de lui donner une preuve de mon amour?
Source: La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) (1839), Ch. 20
„Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.“
— John Stuart Mill, book Autobiography
Autobiography (1873)
„Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.“
— Pearl S. Buck American writer 1892 - 1973
To My Daughters, With Love (1967)
„Sometimes I'm happy
sometimes I'm blue
my disposition
depends on you.“
— Irving Caesar American composer and lyricist 1895 - 1996
"Sometimes I'm Happy".
„It is necessary to hope… for hope itself is happiness.“
— Samuel Johnson English writer 1709 - 1784
„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.“
— Samuel Smiles Scottish author 1812 - 1904
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.
„Lesson no. 5: Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story“
— François Lelord, book Hector and the Search for Happiness
Variant: Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story.
Source: Hector and the Search for Happiness
„The creation itself is full of griefs. How can one understand joy if there is no sorrow? And how can everyone be happy at the same time?“
— Sarada Devi Hindu religious figure, spiritual consort of Ramakrishna 1853 - 1920
[In the Company of the Holy Mother, 66-67]