Happiness is often presented as being very dull but, he thought, lying awake, that is because dull people are sometimes very happy and intelligent people can and do go around making themselves and everyone else miserable. He had never found happiness dull. It always seemed more exciting than any other thing and capable of as great intensity as sorrow to those people who were capable of having it.
Interpretation
Happiness is often misunderstood as dull, but it can be profound and intense, especially among those who truly appreciate it.
In this quote, Ernest Hemingway contrasts the perception of happiness as something mundane with the idea that true happiness can be deeply fulfilling and intense. He suggests that while dull individuals may find contentment in their simplicity, intelligent people often struggle with their emotions, experiencing both joy and sorrow more intensely. Thus, happiness should not be seen as a banal state but as a vibrant and significant aspect of life.
In practice
A motivational speaker could use this quote to highlight the dynamic nature of happiness during a workshop.
He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.
How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.
There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.
Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.
There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.
The only time that I am really truly happy—when I feel at my best—is when I'm on the stage.
The happiness consists in realizing that it is all a great strange dream.
...true self-esteem comes from competence, not the other way around.
Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all.
And when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt - this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty to find something beautiful within life no matter how slight.
When we are such as He can love without impediment, we shall in fact be happy.
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