Quotes About Contentment

Loneliness is no excuse for compromise. Be comfortable with yourself before you choose to be with someone else just to avoid being alone.

There was a jail with a prisoner in it," he said, "who was surrounded by mountains of money. He kept counting the money and feeling so happy about his life, thinking that he was the richest man in the whole world. A man passing by saw him and said through the tiny window: "Why are you so happy? You are in prison? Do you know that?" The prisoner laughed: "No! No! It is not that I am inside the jail. It is that you are outside of the jail!

A simple life is good with me. I don't need a whole lot. For me, a T-shirt, a pair of shorts, barefoot on the beach and I'm happy.

Was I happy after that? I think so. I experienced moments of pleasure, moments of unforgettable joy; I loved again and dreamed again like a wide-eyed boy. And yet I always felt there was something missing, something that left me somehow crippled, in short that I only every hovered on the fringes of happiness.

But how can I accept blindness in order to be happy? How can a man turn his back on himself without coming face-to-face with his own negation? You can't water a flower with one hand and pluck it with the other. When you put a rose in a vase, you don't restore its charm; you denature it. You think you're beautifying your room, but in fact, all you're doing is disfiguring your garden.

La chance nous sourit tous les matins, le bonheur nous accueille tous les soirs, et on s'en rend pas compte. On s'y habitue et on pense que ce sera tous les jours ainsi. On fait pas gaffe à ce que l'on possède puis, hop ! D'un claquement de doigts, on s'aperçoit que l'on a tout faux. Parce qu'on croit avoir décroché la lune, on veut croquer le soleil aussi, et c'est là que l'on se crame les ailes

I didn't want to be famous. I just wanted to earn enough money to have a nice life and enjoy acting.

just be what you want to be and you will be happy

Jesus paid a high price for your peace. Don't give it away.

Most people think that their only option is to change their circumstances. But these are not the true causes of their unhappiness. It has more to do with the way they think about their circumstances.

The purpose of Buddhism is not to convert people. It is to give them tools so they can create greater happiness. So they can be happier Catholics, happier atheists, happier Buddhists.

The purpose of Buddhism is not to convert people. It is to give them tools so they can create greater happiness. So they can be happier Catholics, happier atheists, happier Buddhists. There are many practices . . .

For those beings with a broader perspective of Planet Earth, boredom is sometimes accompanied by a darker companion—guilt. We know that compared to many others, our lives are actually quite comfortable. We don't live in a war zone or in abject poverty; we don't have to dwell in the shadows on account of our gender or religious opinions. We're free to eat, dress, live, and walk however we like, thank you very much. But even so, we're bored beyond measure.

When we think of other beings with compassion, this makes us happiest. When we consider how to help others avoid suffering and give them contentment, we, ourselves, are the first to benefit.

Enduring happiness was only possible with equanimity. As long as our happiness depended on circumstances, it would be as fleeting and unreliable as the events themselves.

it is not so much the circumstances of our lives that make us happy or unhappy but the way we see them.

The here and now. What contentment it held! Why spoil it by thinking?

Every living being strives for happiness. Every being wants to avoid all forms of suffering.

If any object, achievement, or relationship was a true cause of happiness, then whoever had such a thing should be happy. But no such thing has ever been found," continued Lobsang. "What's saddest of all is that if we believe that our happiness depends on something we don't currently have, then we can't be happy here and now. Yet here and now is the only time we can be happy. We can't be happy in the future; it doesn't yet exist.

Enjoy the pleasures of this world, but don't neglect your inner well-being.

The power of meow?" suggested Serena as Mrs. Trinci stroked me. "Exactly," said His Holiness, chuckling. "It is the pathway to well-being and to discovering our own true nature.

when I really paid close attention, when my mind was open and my senses acute, I was able to find intense joy in the simplest of things.

people are much happier when they're mindful of what they're doing.

It can be useful to have goals. Purpose. But we should never believe that our happiness depends on achieving them. The two are quite separate.