Quotes About Contentment

Laura read a lot. She lived alone in a tiny bedsit and her television was so small and snowy she didnt watch it much. But she read all the time: at bedtime, while she ate, while she cooked, while she dressed and while she brushed her teeth. She would have read in the shower if she could have worked out a method that wouldnt completely ruin the book. In the same way she could read anywhere, she could read anything, and if it was good, enjoy it.

Then she made herself a hot-water bottle, for company as much as warmth, and went slowly up to bed.

My real task is not to try to reinvent myself or to transcend my life after all, but to inhabit it more fully, to appreciate it, and to thoughtfully tend whats already here. .. embracing and welcoming the person I actually am and quietly making the contribution I have to offer- whether its a manuscript page or an email to my old next-door neighbor. What matters is not the grandness of the gesture, but its source. If I do my work, all of it, with love, then it is worthy.

While she might not have opted for this illness, neither does she entirely regret it; she prefers, as she writes so movingly, a life ofpassionate turbulence to one of tedious calm.

Later, after Christmas carols and a nightcap of mulled ale in front of the fire, Mole reflects on how much he has missed the warmth and security of what he once had known, all of those "friendly things which had long been unconsciously a part of him.

I have tried to live very quietly, so I could be happy.

It's important to have your private enjoyments because sometimes that's all we have.

She told me the only way I would be happy on Milk Farm Road with my mother would be to turn off the radio. This would eliminate a great deal of temptation.

You've got to enjoy yourself. The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it. That's how I look at it. Ask anybody, they'll all tell you. The evening's the best part of the day.

All I know is that I've wasted all these years looking for something, a sort of trophy I'd get only if I really, really did enough to deserve it. But I don't want it anymore, I want something else now, something warm and sheltering, something I can turn to, regardless of what I do, regardless of who I become. Something that will just be there, always, like tomorrow's sky.

After all, there's no turning back the clock now. One can't be forever dwelling on what might have been. One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful.

As far as I'm concerned, Miss Kenton, my vocation will not be fulfilled until I have done all I can to see his lordship through the great tasks he has set himself. The day his lordship's work is complete, the day he is able to rest on his laurels, content in the knowledge that he has done all anyone could ever reasonably ask of him, only on that day, Miss Kenton, will I be able to call myself, as you put it, a well-contented man.

For however one may come in later years to reassess one's achievements, it is always a consolation to know that one's life has contained a moment or two or real satisfaction

Everything suddenly felt perfect: an hour set aside, stretching ahead of us, and there wasn't a better way to spend it. I had to really hold myself back from giggling stupidly, or jumping up and down on the pavement like a little kid.

It must be great. Not to miss things. Not to long to get back to something. Not to be looking back all the time. Everything must be so much more…

if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.

Quizá habríamos sido felices si las cosas hubieran continuado de este modo durante más tiempo; si hubiéramos podido disfrutar de más tardes charlando, practicando sexo, leyendo en voz alta y dibujando.

One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful.

It must be great. Not to miss things. Not to long to get back to something. Not to be looking back all the time.

I wonder if it wouldn't have been better if the Almighty had created us all as – well – as sort of plants. You know, firmly embedded in the soil. Then none of this rot about wars and boundaries would have come up in the first place.

And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.

One can't be forever dwelling on what might have been.

Wszyscy mamy gorsze dni. Ale w porównaniu z tym co mieliÅ›my przedtem, czujemy, jakbyÅ›my dopiero teraz... ?yli peÅ'niÄ… ?ycia.

When my own time comes, will I too long for the sea? I think I will be content enough with the soil. And I will not demand the exact spot, but let it be within this country Horace and I have spent the years roaming contentedly.