A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness.
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 it.
Although we may wish for more or strive to do better than we have, in these times it is enough to keep your soul.
Sometimes in life there's no problem and sometimes there solution. Within this space - between these apparent poles - life flows.
What I see especially among the Navajos and the Zunis and the Hopis is a culture of people who have been smart enough to learn a lesson that we're awfully slow to get... They know that being rich doesn't have any damn thing to do with how much money you've got. It's got to do with are you happy and are you content.
There are still blue skies and rainbows and days bathed in sunlight.
There are colorful shade trees filled with sweet bird songs.
And there are wishing stars in the heavens as well as angels in God's service.
So lift up your eyes.
Refuse to be unhappy.
I love everything that makes up a milieu, the rolling of the carriages and the noise of the workmen in Paris, the cries of a thousand birds in the country, the movement of the ships on the waters. I love also absolute, profound silence, and, in short, I love everything that is around me, no matter where I am.
Happiness is never found in materialistic things; it exists in things that cannot be physically possessed. Therefore, happiness is priceless. It can never be purchased. Love is happiness.
When we perform at our highest level of potential, we are content. Because we have given I best in what we enjoy doing.
Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a sort of madness?
Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough
In a person's lifetime there may be not more than half a dozen occasions that he can look back to in the certain knowledge that right then, at that moment, there was room for nothing but happiness in his heart.
Let it be a small gain or big gain never do lesser than one's ability, let it be a pain or a pleasure never accept more than one's share.
The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.
You know someone's okay if they can ignore things they can't do anything about and move on.
The true measure of your success is the degree to which within you are truly content - and the depth to which others hold you with real love and respect
Happiness can only be achieved by looking inward & learning to enjoy whatever life has and this requires transforming greed into gratitude.
Paradise was always over there, a day’s sail away. But it’s a funny thing, escapism. You can go far and wide and you can keep moving on and on through places and years, but you never escape your own life. I, finally, knew where my life belonged. Home.
I think instead [of happiness] we should be working for contentment... an inner sense of fulfillment that's relatively independent of external circumstances.
The midsummer sun shines but dim, The fields strive in vain to look gay; But when I am happy in Him December's as pleasant as May.
There had to be something wrong with my life. I should have been born a Yugoslavian shepherd who looked up at the Big Dipper every night.
Satiety depends not at all on how much we eat, but on how we eat. It's the same with happiness, the very same...happiness doesn't depend on how many external blessings we have snatched from life. It depends only on our attitude toward them. There's a saying about it in the Taoist ethic: 'Whoever is capable of contentment will always be satisfied.
Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little In comparison to eternal realities.-
One honest John Tompkins, a hedger & ditcher,
Although he was poor, did not want to be richer;
For all such vain wishes in him were prevented
By a fortunate habit of being contented.
He brewed his tea in a blue china pot, poured it into a chipped white cup with forget-me-nots on the handle, and dropped in a dollop of honey and cream. He sat by the window, cup in hand, watching the first snow fall. "I am," he sighed deeply, "contented as a clam. I am a most happy man.
The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people.
I have found contentment and joy in being exactly where God wants me to be, and that is what makes me happy.
The road to happiness starts with a deep breath and an awareness of the many blessings tied to that single breath.
You might as well be happy in WHO you’re, WHAT you have and WHERE you live. Joy and contentment is not found in possessions, people, places or professions. Christ alone is our sufficiency, and Christ is everywhere.
Always remember that you were once alone, and the crowd you see in your life today are just as unecessary as when you were alone.
If men only felt about death as they do about sleep, all terrors would cease. . . Men sleep contentedly, assured that they will wake the following morning. They should feel the same about their lives.
That very breath wherewith they utter their complaints is a blessing and a fundamental one too for if God would withdraw that they were incapable of whatsoever else either have or desire.
A book of verses underneath the bough
A flask of wine, a loaf of bread and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness
And wilderness is paradise now.
Give yourself the love and attention you desire, it's the starting point of contentment.
More often than not, it's the poor who find themselves content with what they have because they come to the realization of the difference between having something they need and something they want.
Rosa had achieved the sort of serene and confident happiness that Tamsin had never really known. She was connected to Roberto in a way that made Tamsin long for something similar. A man with whom she could share all parts of her life, someone to be her equal and her inspiration.
A bowl of diligence and perseverance, a cup of faith and a pinch of inspiration mixed with a spoon of contentment are the ingredients of a delicious success. Cook yours well.
Deep, contended joy comes from a place of complete security and confidence [in God] - even in the midst of trial.
I want to cultivate a deep sense of gratitude, of groundedness, of enough, even while I’m longing for something more. The longing and the gratitude, both. I’m practicing believing that God knows more than I know, that he sees what I can’t, that he’s weaving a future I can’t even imagine from where I sit this morning.
Contentment should not be confused with smugness… Contentment is being happy despite of the successes and failures.
Having contentment and gratitude in the present moment is the surest way to achieve success.
Letting go is the willingness to change your beliefs in order to bring more peace and joy into your life instead of holding onto beliefs that bring pain and suffering…
When I’m depressed, I read Caeiro - he’s my fresh air. I become very calm, content, faithful - yes, I find faith in God, and in the soul’s transcendent living smallness, after reading the poems by that ungodly anti-humanist who goes unsurpassed on earth.
Happiness is seeing blessings in disguise, beauty under camouflage, and love amid conflict.
I was especially perceptive to all things beautiful that morning - raspberries in blue china bowls were enough to make the heart sing.
Joy is a deeply felt contentment that transcends difficult circumstances and derives maximum enjoyment from every good experience.
Never let them try out this gratitude, for they would immediately discover that it supplies the first and most important component to happiness: Contentment.
Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep-blue sky and the clustering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the mind.
All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things of this world-not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind.
Wu Ming-Yi, The Man With Compound Eyes
Recently I keep thinking that this isn’t about the survival of a species. It’s about why we’re never satisfied with what we need, why we always take a bit more.
A breeze blew softly, slightly rippling the water as it carried the heady scents of late Carolina springtime through the air. Honeysuckle. Jasmine. Ripe, pungent river mud. Ah, the world felt right.
Life is like a story, when all the resolution is resolved, you heave a sigh of relief.
Like everything else, we know the futility of money only when we have more than enough of it.
Dreams aren't only an illusion to put you into a subconsciously pleasurable state of mind for the time being, but also a pathway to gain complete contentment.
It will be your duty, and it will be your pleasure too to estimate her (as you chose her) by the qualities that she has, and not by the qualities she may not have.
Better to be happy with the cod fish in your plate now, than to linger for the taste of a tuna that is still swimming in the sea.
Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s where we found the other person, and find them still.
...there is more good in contentment, than there is in the thing that you would fain have to cure your discontent...
The moment that you give gratitude is the moment that you find happiness. The moment that you lose gratitude your happiness will vanish and slip through your fingers
Peace means no one is worried about anyone else's cookie...in this moment we are all quietly content with the cookies we have.
People are complaining of having rags and not riches, but I find it a blessing just to have rags, to wipe away the dirt and dust that may come in the course of life.
So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment.
Being content with what you have already is an art form that leads to a peace that can’t be replaced by anything else.
Contentment isn’t something that just happens to you, Regan Lee, it’s a choice. You have to want exactly what you have.
For the first time, she did want more. She did not know what she wanted, knew that it was dangerous and that she should rest content with what she had, but she knew an emptiness deep inside her, which began to ache.
Been Contented goes beyond our material wants; contentment sets us free from the illusion of having more or “Better things”, or expecting “better times" it sets us free from the illusion that somehow things should be different.
It's not what you have on the outside that glitters in light, it's what you have on the inside that shines in the dark.
God may not give that instant dollar bill your seeking, but it's in the little change He brings, that will add to a dollar.
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