We do not ignore maturity. Maturity consists in not losing the past while fully living in the present with a prudent awareness of the possibilities of the future.
Thomas TraherneRead
More company increases happiness, but does not lighten or diminish misery.
Interpretation
What this quote means
While being around others may enhance joy, it does not reduce suffering.
This quote suggests that social connections can enhance our feelings of happiness and joy, but they do not have the power to alleviate our pain or sorrows. It highlights the idea that while companionship can bring joy, it does not replace the challenges or difficulties we face in life.
Themes
HappinessCompanyMiserySocialConnections
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the value of friendship, one might use this quote.
More from Thomas Traherne
All quotes βHappiness was not made to be boasted, but enjoyed. Therefore tho others count me miserable, I will not believe them if I know and feel myself to be happy; nor fear them.
Thomas TraherneRead
To love one person with a private love is poor and miserable: to love all is glorious.
Thomas TraherneRead
You never know yourself till you know more than your body.
Thomas TraherneRead
Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehensions of the world, than I when I was a child.
Thomas TraherneRead
The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and think and taste and see, all is in vain.
Thomas TraherneRead
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It is impossible to pursue happiness. Nobody has ever pursued it. One has to wait for it. And it is not a right at all. No law court can force you to be happy or force happiness to be with you. No government violence is capable of making you happy. No power can make you happy.
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A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted.
George SantayanaRead