How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.
Interpretation
The pursuit and maintenance of happiness drives human actions and endurance.
William James suggests that the quest for happiness is a fundamental motivation behind human behavior and resilience. According to him, people’s actions, decisions, and the hardships they are willing to face are often influenced by their desire to attain, retain, or regain happiness, making it a central theme in life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about pursuing dreams, you might say this quote to emphasize the importance of happiness in our efforts.
Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.
The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.
All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience, factors to which the environment and the lessons it has so far taught us must learn to bend.
The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association
As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
Many people think excitement is happiness.... But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.
Sometimes you do have to laugh to keep from crying. And sometimes the world feels all right and good and kind of like it's becoming nice again around you. And you realize it, and realize how happy you are in it, and you just gotta laugh.
Things that really matter are the things that gold can't buy, so let's have another cup o' coffee and let's have another piece o' pie.
One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
The only truly affluent are those who do not want more than they have.
A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.
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