| Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities. Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly. Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities. There is only one person who could ever make you happy, and that person is you. The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions—the little soon-forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment in the disguise of a playful raillery, and the countless other infinitessimals of pleasurable thought and genial feeling. Happiness consists in activity: such is the constitution of our nature; it is a running stream, and not a stagnant pool. Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling. A light heart lives long. Men spend their lives in anticipations,—in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other—it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age. Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. The chances are that you have already come to believe that happiness is unattainable. But men have attained it. And they have attained it by realising that happiness does not spring from the procuring of physical or mental pleasure, but from the development of reason and the adjustment of conduct to principles. Happiness is not a matter of events, it depends upon the tides of the mind. Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress. Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances. There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying things which are beyond the power of our will. You're happiest while you're making the greatest contribution. Action may not always bring happiness; Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life. The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colorless when unbroken. Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens. Happiness is where we find it, but rarely where we seek it. To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others. The only way on earth to multiply happiness is to divide it. Happiness depends upon ourselves. Try to be happy in this present moment, and put not off being so to a time to come,—as though that time should be of another make from this which has already come and is ours. Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness. No man is happy who does not think himself so. Our minds are as different as our faces: we are all traveling to one destination; --happiness; but few are going by the same road.
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TRICHY PRASANNAN
www.keralites.net          |
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