My chief study all my life has been to lighten misfortunes and multiply pleasures, as far as human nature can.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that the speaker has dedicated their life to alleviating suffering and enhancing joy for humanity.
Mary Wortley Montagu reflects on her life's work and purpose, emphasizing her commitment to reducing the hardships faced by individuals while simultaneously increasing their happiness. This dual focus on both minimizing distress and maximizing joy illustrates a profound understanding of human nature and the pursuit of a fulfilling life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of positivity, this quote can inspire others to focus on spreading joy.
I regard almost all quarrels of princes on the same footing, and I see nothing that marks man's unreason so positively as war. Indeed, what folly to kill one another for interests often imaginary, and always for the pleasure of persons who do not think themselves even obliged to those who sacrifice themselves for them!
Whoever will cultivate their own mind will find full employment. Every virtue does not only require great care in the planting, but as much daily solicitude in cherishing as exotic fruits and flowers; the vices and passions (which I am afraid are the natural product of the soil) demand perpetual weeding. Add to this the search after knowledge. . . and the longest life is too short.
There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.
Strictly speaking, there is but one real evil: I mean acute pain. All other complaints are so considerably diminished by time that it is plain the grief is owing to our passion, since the sensation of it vanishes when that is over.
Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself
that expression you get in your eyes when you are very tired and everything is like a dream and you are starting to know what things are like underneath what people say they are.
A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.
No man (sic) has learned to live until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. Length without breadth is like a self-contained tributary having no outward flow to the ocean. Stagnant, still and stale, it lacks both life and freshness. In order to live creatively and meaningfully, our self-concern must be wedded to other concerns.
My encouragement: delete the energy vampires from your life, clean out all complexity, build a team around you that frees you to fly, remove anything toxic, and cherish simplicity. Because that's where genius lives.
The harder you work, the more confidence you get. But you may be working hard on something that is false.
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