Quotations

“Upon the whole, a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”

Inward sufficiency ranked above outward fortune · The Spectator, No. 574, 30 July 1714

“I never had such a lovely time in my life, and Philip's absolutely perfect.”

An early rapture that did not survive the first marriage · Letter to her mother, written on her honeymoon in New York

“To possess character is to be useful, and to be useful is to be independent, and to be useful and independent, is to be happy, even in the midst of sorrow.”

Linking character, usefulness, independence and happiness · Essay, The Heart of the New Thought

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“Moments of danger that are moments of sure and perfect happiness, because then the adorable Reality gives itself to our very sight and touch.”

Describing moments of intense experience in which danger and profound happiness become strangely united. · A Defence of Idealism

May (Julian) Sinclair

“Youth possesses a certain buoyancy and exhilaration which passes for happiness, until the real disposition of the individual asserts itself with the passing of time.”

Distinguishing youthful energy from enduring happiness · Essay, The Philosophy of Happiness

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“I shall be very happy to visit...”

A polite expression of willingness to visit · Letter, 1854

Walter Savage Landor

“Happiness must come from within in order to respond to that which comes from without.”

Defining happiness as an inner capacity rather than merely an external reward · Essay, The Philosophy of Happiness

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“A child should be taught from its earliest life to find entertainment in every kind of condition or weather.”

Advocating adaptability and enjoyment rather than dependence on ideal conditions · Essay, The Philosophy of Happiness

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“The highest happiness on earth is to be useful to others.”

Original: Den største lykke på jorden er å være til nytte for andre. — Finds true joy in selfless service and contribution to the community · Journal entry (Norwegian)

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

“Unselfish thoughts, training your mind to desire only universal good, the cultivation of the highest attributes, such as love, honesty, gratitude, faith, reverence and good will, all mean a life of usefulness and happiness.”

Linking ethical thought with usefulness and happiness · Essay, Thought Force

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“If anything were dangerous to me now, it would be human happiness, great, immense and wholly human happiness.”

Original: Wiesz ty, droga moja, że jeżeliby mi co teraz było niebezpiecznem, to właśnie szczęście ludzkie, szczęście jakie wielkie, ogromne a zupełnie ludzkie. — He sees comfort and fulfilment as potentially distracting from the difficult path he has chosen. · Letter to his mother, 14 May 1844 (Polish)

Juliusz Słowacki

“Let the spirit assert itself and demand health and hope and happiness in this new year.”

A New Year exhortation towards optimism, vitality and renewal · Essay, The Heart of the New Thought

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“You are worth loving, and are blessed in loving and being loved.”

A simple affirmation of the reciprocal value of love and affection · Letter, late-life correspondence

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“The time which passes pleasantly passes lightly; days are remembered by their cares more than by their content.”

Reflecting on the unequal way happiness and trouble shape memory · Landoniana, from Romance and Reality

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“Whenever I can, I forget my special call to sorrow, and live as happily as I may. Perhaps that is why I seldom elect to write racially.”

Explains her frequent turn from race themes as a chosen art of lightness · Letter to Arna Bontemps, 1941

Georgia Douglas Johnson

“There are natures born to happiness just as there are born musicians, mechanics and mathematicians.”

Comparing happiness with an innate temperament or aptitude · Essay, The Philosophy of Happiness

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“I have no notion of a happy life, but a happy moment.”

Finding happiness in vivid, passing moments rather than in an imagined permanently happy life · Letters, as commonly attributed

William Shenstone

“Once a pleasure is attained, the soul does not cease desiring pleasure, just as it never ceases to think.”

Original: Conseguito un piacere, l’anima non cessa di desiderare il piacere, come non cessa mai di pensare. — Pleasure cannot finally satisfy desire because desire itself is continuous and inseparable from conscious life. · Zibaldone, entry 183, July 1820 (Italian)

Giacomo Leopardi

“To be able to enjoy heaven, one must learn first to enjoy earth.”

Grounding spiritual aspiration in appreciation of earthly life · Essay, The Philosophy of Happiness

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“You can at least be happy in the thought that you have tried to do something for another.”

Valuing compassionate action even when its eventual outcome cannot be guaranteed · Prose memoir, Making the House a Home, 1922

Edgar A. Guest

“The happiness of this earthly life is only a secondary thing, as all those know who have pursued happiness and found its fruit bitter.”

Original: Lecz to szczęście ziemskie jest tylko podrzędną rzeczą i wiedzą o tem wszyscy, którzy tylko za szczęściem gonili, i którym ten owoc w ustach zgorzkniał. — He places worldly happiness below the deeper spiritual purposes that increasingly governed his life. · Letter to his mother, 18 March 1843 (Polish)

Juliusz Słowacki