Quotes About Contentment

A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it.

Only the untouched, the well-fed and contented, could possibly covet suffering like a designer jacket.

Accordingly, the one respect in which I depart from my younger self is that I now regard those people who have little or no story to tell themselves as terribly fortunate.

the good life doesn't knock on the door. Joy is a job.

Like so many of our neighbors who latched onto tragedy to stand out from the crowd -- slavery, incest, a suicide -- I had exaggerated the ethnic chip on my shoulder for effect. I've learned since that tragedy is not to be hoarded. Only the untouched, the well-fed and contented, could possibly covet suffering like a designer jacket. I'd readily donate my story to the Salvation Army so that some other frump in need of color could wear it away.

However gnawing a deficiency, satiety is worse... We are meant to be hungry.

Complacency has a way of restoring itself of its own accord

It wasn't that eating was so great--it wasn't--but that nothing was great. Eating being merely okay still put it head and shoulders above everything that was decidedly less than okay.

I wondered if that wasn't the answer to the mystery, countrywide. It wasn't that eating was so great-it wasn't-but that nothing was great. Eating being merely okay still put it head and shoulders above everything else that was decidedly less than okay.

Me paso el día sin hacer nada. Sería un consuelo para mí estar con alguien que tampoco hiciera nada.

And one of our consuming diversions as we age is to recite, not only to others but to ourselves, our own story. I should know; I am in flight from my story every day, and it dogs me like a faithful stray. Accordingly, the one respect in which I depart from my younger self is that I now regard those people who have little or no story to tell themselves as terribly fortunate.

as self-satisfaction, and their contentment came across as exclusionary.

The very best thing about getting old was basking in this great big not-giving-a-shit.

A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it.

How lucky we are, when we're spared what we think we want!

All achievement should be measured in human happiness.

Happiness doesn't just happen. I'm convinced that for the most part, those who focus their minds on it, obtain it.

I have a desire to create more film, more beauty, more art, more love, but I don't feel desperate. It's not about creating or building a career.

returns to the warmth of the bed, the resented comfort of sleep.

For a long time we sit there not saying anything, enjoying the quiet of the bay and the occasional steamy knee bump.

Well, I don't think just because people are in a relationship that they're happy. I don't think relationships necessarily make people happy. You just are happy or you're not happy.

For me, just being how old I am, I know I don't want to be a single mom. I really would rather make it a two-person job. But I've also come to terms with not being a mother at all. I'm actually really good with either direction that my life can take as being a valid experience.

Life may not be perfect, at least it offered moments that were perfect enough.

I wished there was a way to keep that in a bottle, that one moment of wonderful perfect, so I could open it up whenever I needed to get a good whiff.