Some of the happiest people I know have none of the things the world insists are necessary for satisfaction and joy.
Joseph B. WirthlinRead
If we only look around us, there are a thousand reasons for us not to be happy, and it is simplicity itself to blame our unhappiness on the things we lack in life. It doesn’t take any talent at all to find them. The problem is, the more we focus on the things we don’t have, the more unhappy and more resentful we become.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True happiness comes from focusing on what we have rather than what we lack.
In this quote, Joseph B. Wirthlin highlights the tendency of people to focus on their shortcomings and what they lack, which leads to unhappiness and resentment. He emphasizes that identifying reasons to be unhappy is easy, but it is crucial to shift our perspective towards gratitude and appreciation for the blessings we have to cultivate genuine happiness.
Themes
HappinessPerspectiveGratitudeFocusContentment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a motivational speech to encourage people to adopt a positive mindset.
More from Joseph B. Wirthlin
All quotes →Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the pathway of discipleship. It comforts, counsels, cures, and consoles. It leads us through valleys of darkness and through the veil of death. In the end love leads us to the glory and grandeur of eternal life.
Joseph B. WirthlinRead
Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character. We like to be around those who are grateful. They tend to brighten all around them. They make others feel better about themselves. They tend to be more humble, more joyful, more likable.
Joseph B. WirthlinRead
We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.
Joseph B. WirthlinRead
The true greatness of a person, in my view, is evident in the way he or she treats those with whom courtesy and kindness are not required.
Joseph B. WirthlinRead
All too often a family’s spending is governed more by their yearning than by their earning. They somehow believe that their life will be better if they surround themselves with an abundance of things. All too often all they are left with is avoidable anxiety and distress
Joseph B. WirthlinRead
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I do not understand what the man who is happy wants in order to be happier.
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