Quotes About Contentment

Sometimes I stop, take a step back, and realise how good I've got it.

All you care about with your parents is that they are happy, and my mother is exceptionally happy at the moment, and I've always adored my stepfather, and he's always been a kind and good and lovely man.

I'm happy ever since stepping back to New York.

There's a room in my house where my stereo, records, CDs, and books are housed. I spend a lot of time in that room, sitting in my chair beside the fireplace, reading and listening to music. Sometimes I just stand before the shelves and look at my books, because every single one of them means something to me.

We need to appreciate the Enlightenment's broader, richer notion of happiness and make it again about finding one's place in the world, enjoying what we have and what we see in it, and appreciating the beauty of the Earth during our short time on it.

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.

It is much better to have your gold in the hand than in the heart.

Comparison, more than reality, makes men happy or wretched.

Enquire not what boils in another's pot.

The most thankful person is the most fully human.

For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey,This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind?

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise. - Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray; Along the cool sequestered vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Chuang Tzu was invited to the court to serve as a minister, an invitation he declined with a typical story: An ox is selected for a festival and fattened up for several years, living the life of wealth and indulgence—until the day he is led away for sacrifice. At that reckoning what would he give to return to the simple life, where there was poverty but also freedom? In

Being natural means to exist spontaneously without having to take any action. . . . By taking no action is not meant folding one's arms and closing one's mouth. If we simply let everything act by itself, it will be contented with its nature and destiny. (12)

Extinguish desire and suffering goes with it.

Whatever your income, always live below your means.

it matters less how much more you make than what you do with what you already have.

Financially independent people are happier than those in their same income/age cohort who are not financially secure.

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.

We never repent of having eaten too little.

My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

The happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of Heaven; and it is well it is so, since it is that which is the lot of the mass of mankind.