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    “I’d say, ‘But I’m not happy.’ And [my grandmother] would say, ‘Where is it written that you’re supposed to be happy all the time?’ And I actually think it was the beginning of my spiritual practice—that life is difficult. Then 40 years later, I learned that the buddhists said the same thing, that life is inevitably challenging and how are we going to do it in a way that’s wise and doesn’t complicate it more than it is just by itself?”

    Sylvia Boorstein, via Becoming Wise (Page 218)

      “We now know that doing good to others, having a network of strong and supportive relationships, and having a sense that one’s life is worthwhile are the three greatest determinants of happiness.”

      Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, via Becoming Wise (Page 192)

        “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”

        Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey

          “If you want to be successful, surround yourself with people who are more successful than you are, but if you want to be happy, surround yourself with people who are less successful than you are.”

          Naval

            “Simply to have all the necessities of life and three meals a day will not bring happiness. Happiness is hidden in the unnecessary and in those impractical things that bring delight to the inner person… When we lack proper time for the simple pleasures of life, for the enjoyment of eating, drinking, playing, creating, visiting friends, and watching children at play, then we have missed the purpose of life. Not on bread alone do we live but on all these human and heart-hungry luxuries.”

            Ed Hays, Pray Always, via Sunbeams (Page 90)

              “It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much.”

              Bernard de Fontenelle, via Sunbeams (Page 76)

                “Many quests begin from a sense of discontent or alienation. If you find yourself feeling discontented, pay attention to the reasons why. Add action to discontent: Find a way to do something about the uncertainty you feel.”

                Chris Guillebeau, The Happiness of Pursuit (Page 38) (Read Matt’s Blog On This Quote)

                The Happiness Of Pursuit [Book]

                  The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau
                  By: Chris Guillebeau

                  Book Overview: In The Happiness of Pursuit, Chris Guillebeau draws on interviews with hundreds of questers, revealing their secret motivations, their selection criteria, the role played by friends and family, their tricks for solving logistics, and the importance of documentation. Equally fascinating is Chris’s examination of questing’s other side. What happens after the summit is climbed, the painting hung, the endurance record broken, the at-risk community saved? A book that challenges each of us to take control—to make our lives be about something while at the same time remaining clear-eyed about the commitment—The Happiness of Pursuit will inspire readers of every age and aspiration. It’s a playbook for making your life count.

                  Post(s) Inspired By This Book:

                  26 Quotes ➜
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                    “Happy is the person who can improve others, not only when present, but even when in their thoughts!”

                    Seneca, Moral Letters, via The Daily Stoic (Page 79)

                      “They are so concerned for their life that their anxiety makes life unbearable, even when they have the things they think they want. Their very concern for enjoyment makes them unhappy… I will hold to the saying that: ‘Perfect joy is to be without joy. Perfect praise is to be without praise.’ If you ask ‘what ought to be done’ and ‘what ought not to be done’ on earth in order to produce happiness, I answer that these questions do not have an answer. There is no way of determining such things…”

                      Thomas Merton, The Way Of Chuang Tzu, via Sunbeams (Page 53)

                        “Smart isn’t easily measurable. Neither is beautiful, good or successful. And especially happy. A high SAT score is a measure of whether or not you scored well on the SAT. That’s it. A bank balance is a measure of how much money you have in the bank. That’s all. In the face of the difficulty the system has in measuring things that don’t measure, we create proxies. Things like popularity as a proxy for whether a work of human creativity has worth or not. It’s a method built to process commodities instead of people, and it’s running amok.”

                        Seth Godin, Blog

                          “What I used to think of as happiness was merely distraction from the pain. The pain of disconnection, of separateness from you. All longing, all yearning, all thirst, flung on unworthy surrogates, false idols, unsated by unworthy objects, still pulling us unwillingly back together.”

                          Russell Brand, Recovery (Page 208)

                            “Eagerly anticipating some future event, passionately imagining something you desire, looking forward to some happy scenario—as pleasurable as these activities might seem, they ruin your chance at happiness here and now. Locate that yearning for more, better, someday and see it for what it is: the enemy of your contentment. Choose it or your happiness. As Epictetus says, the two are not compatible.”

                            Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 57)

                              “It is quite impossible to unite happiness with a yearning for what we don’t have. Happiness has all that it wants, and resembling the well-fed, there shouldn’t be hunger or thirst.”

                              Epictetus, Discourses, via The Daily Stoic (Page 57)