Quotes About Contentment

It was curious that when we had been able to buy new clothes when we wanted we had never really appreciated them nor enjoyed them. You have to be in the position of needing things very badly indeed before you can appreciate possessing them.

He put down the paper without regret, and looked at his wife, and, as he looked at her, he smiled because she was nice to look at, and because he loved her, and because she amused and interested him enormously. They had been married for nine months now, and sometimes he thought he knew her through and through, and sometimes he thought he didn't know the first thing about her—theirs was a most satisfactory marriage.

Barbara returned the pressure. "It's turned out all right after all," she said contentedly. "Things usually do, somehow. You worry and fuss and try to make things go the way you think they should, and then you find that the other way was best. I'm going to try not to worry about things anymore.

They didn't hate Germany or wish her ill. They were too busy and happy to bother.

I like you to be happy and carefree, but... but nobody ought to live in a fool's Paradise.

There were pretty carpets, good china, and an abundance of excellent food; there were magazines and papers and books lying about, and boxes of cigarettes for anyone who wanted them … there was all this, but above all there was peace. Peace, thought Franz, peace and happiness—yes, that was really the keynote of Fernacres.

I'm glad you're here, Monkey," said Arthur Abbott at last. "I'm getting old, I suppose. Anyhow, I've come to the time of life when one old friend seems better than all the new friends in the world.

It's turned out all right after all," she said contentedly. "Things usually do, somehow. You worry and fuss and try to make things go the way you think they should, and then you find that the other way was best. I'm going to try not to worry about things anymore.

It was a busy day, washing and ironing and packing, but although I had so much to do I was happy (I felt like a woman who has just been released from prison).

Yes, it is. Some people would find it frightfully dull to be the daughter of the parson at Chevis Green." "But we don't," cried Liz. "That's exactly what I mean. It's in you from the beginning. Either there's this mysterious thing in you that makes you happy—that makes you interested in everything and interesting to yourself—or else there isn't, and you're dull and dreary and discontented.

She smiles and says I only think so because my standard has gone up. Reply that she really does not know me, I am a rebel at heart. 'The only people who are not rebels are vegetable marrows,' says Mrs. Parsons. Reply that it would be rather nice to be a vegetable marrow never to be discontented or miserable without any reason for being so. Mrs. Parsons laughs and says 'Perhaps but how dull never to be joyful and happy without any reason for being so!

It is wonderful to be happy, but to know you are happy is absolute bliss.

Have you ever noticed how a very small thing can give you an enormous amount of pleasure? You don't know why it should; but it just—just makes you happy.

Brownlow had dreaded coming back to Kintoul, but he found that there was nothing to fear. He was scarcely even sad; there was no awakening of that misery which had driven him hither and thither like a leaf in the autumn wind for so many weary years.

Loneliness is inside a person . . . It is possible to be lonely in a big city. If a person is contented and has enough work to do he will not feel lonely amongst the hills.

in those days nobody talked about being happy, like they do now – nobody minded whether children were happy, the really important thing was that they should be good. But I really think that people were just as happy as they are now, only they never thought about whether they were or not.

If we don't have troubles sent us we can generally make them for ourselves,' I reply. 'It's easy to make yourself miserable over trifles; I've done that sometimes, and then, quite suddenly, you get sent something to be sorry about, and you think looking back how happy I was yesterday, and I never knew it.

Often and often the slow difficult tears formed upon my lids and were brushed hastily aside lest they should fall upon my ledger and leave immortal trace of my weakness and misery. But that has passed, and now I am resigned to the life; I even find pleasure in it. The books—I have always loved books and I love them better now—are my greatest solace.

What's the use of thinking about something which never could happen? It only makes you discontented with what you've got.

People can't go on living without happiness—or at least without hope.

James thought he might learn from Daniel how to be alone and yet not lonely, how to be self-sufficient. One must not become selfish of course (Daniel was not selfish), but it would be a useful lesson to learn how to find happiness inside oneself.

Loneliness is inside a person," replied Sutherland. "It is possible to be lonely in a big city. If a person is contented and has enough work to do he will not feel lonely amongst the hills … but it is a wee bit out of the way and would not do for a man with young children who were attending school. All the same it is a solid little house and comfortable. If you are going in that direction Mistress Sutherland would be pleased to give you a cup of tea." Rhoda

Money poisons you when you've got it, and starves you when you haven't.

I'm not sure if I'm most happy when I'm comfortable and content or when I'm pushing myself to the limits. There are such different versions of happy, and I really appreciate both.