Is it not clear, however, that bliss and envy are the numerator and denominator of the fraction called happiness?
Interpretation
Happiness is a balance between bliss and envy.
In this quote, Yevgeny Zamyatin suggests that happiness is a complex interplay between positive and negative emotions, where bliss represents the joy we experience and envy represents the discontent or longing for what others have. He implies that our sense of happiness is determined by how we manage these opposing feelings within us.
In practice
In a motivational speech about mental health.
The knife is the most durable, immortal, the most genius thing that man created. The knife was the guillotine; the knife is the universal means of solving all knots; and along the blade of a knife lies the path of paradox - the single most worthy path of the fearless mind.
Accentuated plainness and accentuated vice ought to bring about harmony. Beauty lies in harmony, in style, whether it be the harmony of ugliness or beauty, vice or virtue.
The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy...
The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is - to bloom. (βA Story About The Most Important Thingβ)
A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth reading.
Knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith.
I am still determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may be.
The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.
I've spent most of my life trying to think my way to happiness, and my failure to achieve that goal only proves, in my mind, that I am not a good enough thinker. It never occurred to me that the source of my unhappiness is not flawed thinking but thinking itself.
Happiness and confidence are the prettiest things you can wear
Never let your fears be the boundaries of your dreams._x000D_ _x000D_ Happiness is a direction, not a place.
Laughter is wine for the soul - laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness - the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.