The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.
Interpretation
Our desires, griefs, and fears often disrupt our happiness.
This quote by Samuel Johnson emphasizes that the primary obstacles to our happiness are rooted in our desires for things we do not have, the grief we experience from losses, and the fears that hold us back. By recognizing these disturbances, we can seek to overcome them and achieve a more fulfilling state of happiness.
In practice
This quote could be used in a self-help seminar to discuss the sources of unhappiness.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
I hope we can be happy where we are, be grateful for our blessings-now-here, accept the challenge that is ours and make the most of it, and don't be envious of others. God help us to be grateful.
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.
Happiness is a decision, not an experience. You can decide to be happy without what you thought you needed in order to be happy, and you will be. Your experience is the result of your decision, not the cause of it.
And when they went away, leaving comfort behind, I think there were not in all the city four merrier people than the hungry little girls who gave away their breakfasts and contented themselves with bread and milk on Christmas morning.
If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough.
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