
“Happiness depends on what you can give, Not on what you can get.”
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
As quoted in Plenty of Time to Sleep When You're Dead : A Compilation of Life-changing Quotes (2006) by Richard Caridi
As quoted in Sprituality in a Materialistic World (2008) by Leslie Klein
Variant: Remember happiness doesn't depend on who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think.
“Happiness depends on what you can give, Not on what you can get.”
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
“If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem.”
Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
“All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.”
Tota felicitas aut infelicitas in hoc solo sita est; videlicet in qualitate obiecti, cui adhaeremus amore.
I, 9; translation by W. Hale White (Revised by Amelia Hutchison Stirling)
On the Improvement of the Understanding (1662)
“The what you have to say depends on your age.”
Letter to Arthur Hugh Clough (December 1847/early 1848)
Context: Had Shakespeare and Milton lived in the atmosphere of modern feeling, had they had the multitude of new thoughts and feelings to deal with a modern has, I think it likely the style of each would have been far less curious and exquisite. For in a man style is the saying in the best way what you have to say. The what you have to say depends on your age. In the 17th century it was a smaller harvest than now, and sooner to be reaped; and therefore to its reaper was left time to stow it more finely and curiously. Still more was this the case in the ancient world. The poet's matter being the hitherto experience of the world, and his own, increases with every century.
“The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart.”
Variant: It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People
“When you can't depend on the Devil, who can you depend on?”
Source: The Devil is Dead (1971), Ch. 5
“Life is like a sewer — what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.”
It's always seemed to me that this is precisely the sort of dynamic, positive thinking that we so desperately need today in these trying times of crisis and universal brouhaha.
Introduction to "We Will All Go Together When We Go"
An Evening (Wasted) With Tom Lehrer (1959)
His opinion on the loyalty of Zionists to the United States
Willard Hotel speech (1961)