“The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.”

—  Arthur Schopenhauer

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy." by Arthur Schopenhauer?
Arthur Schopenhauer photo
Arthur Schopenhauer 261
German philosopher 1788–1860

Related quotes

Ernest Hemingway photo

“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)

Anatole France photo

“Those who have given themselves the most concern about the happiness of peoples have made their neighbors very miserable.”

Anatole France book The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

Les hommes qui se sont occupés du bonheur des peuples ont rendu leurs proches bien malheureux.
Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

Edith Wharton photo

“There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.”

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist, short story writer, designer

Source: Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“Every human being is tried this way in the active service of expectancy. Now comes the fulfillment and relieves him, but soon he is again placed on reconnaissance for expectancy; then he is again relieved, but as long as there is any future for him, he has not yet finished his service. And while human life goes on this way in very diverse expectancy, expecting very different things according to different times and occasions and in different frames of mind, all life is again one nightwatch of expectancy.”

Sören Kierkegaard book Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses

Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses: "Patience in Expectancy" (1844)
1840s, Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses

“He that sympathizes in all the happiness of others, perhaps himself enjoys the safest happiness.”

Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) British priest and writer

Vol. I; XXXIII
Lacon (1820)

“I've always been very happy as a priest and I expect to be very happy in just kind of getting to know people. I think one of the most important things a priest does is that he has an opportunity to spend time with people and I'm looking forward to that.”

Daniel E. Flores (1961) Catholic bishop

Youngest bishop in the U.S. ready to “propose the mystery” of the Church to Detroit https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/8177/youngest-bishop-in-the-us-ready-to-propose-the-mystery-of-the-church-to-detroit (November 29, 2006)

Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“Life is a miracle, and being aware of simply this can already make us very happy.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

George Bernard Shaw photo

“The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

1910s, A Treatise on Parents and Children (1910)
Context: The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation; and the pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active, which is pleasanter than any happiness until you are tired of it.

Related topics