“Make thyself perfect; others, happy.”
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 76
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John Lancaster Spalding202
Catholic bishop 1840–1916Related quotes
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) American poet
Letter to his mother, written from the University of Pennsylvania (12 February 1904), published in The Selected Letters of William Carlos Williams (1957) edited by John C. Thirlwall, p. 5
General sources
Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer
Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
“Whoever is happy will make others happy.”
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) German philosopher, theologian, jurist, and astronomer
De visione Dei (On The Vision of God) (1453)
“Be true to thyself, as thou be not false to others.”
Francis Bacon book Essays
Of Wisdom for a Man's Self
Essays (1625)
“1887. Think thyself happy if thou hast one true Friend; never think of finding another.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)
James Saurin (1759–1842) Bishop of Dromore; Irish Anglican bishop
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 270.