I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.
Interpretation
Happiness is often recognized only in hindsight, as we may not fully appreciate it while it's happening.
In this quote, Nikos Kazantzakis highlights the fleeting nature of happiness and our tendency to overlook its presence. He suggests that true appreciation of our joyful moments often comes only after they have passed, leaving us in awe of how significant those moments were once we reflect upon them.
In practice
In a motivational speech about finding joy in life.
A weak soul does not have the endurance to resist the flesh for very long. It grows heavy, becomes flesh itself, and the contest ends. But among responsible men, men who keep their eyes riveted day and night upon the Supreme Duty, the conflict between flesh and spirit breaks out mercilessly and may last until death.
This, I thought, is how great visionaries and poets see everything- as if for the first time. Each morning they see a new world before their eyes; they do not really see it, they create it.
What happiness this is: to fly, skimming over the earth just as we do in our dreams! Life has become a dream. Can this be the meaning of paradise?
I collect my tools: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, intellect. Night has fallen.
The dual substance of Christ - the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain God. [...] has always been a deep inscrutable mystery to me. [...] My principle anguish and source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh. [...] And my soul is the arena where these two armies have clashed and met.
I fight to embrace the entire circle of human activity to the full extent of my ability.
Industry, commerce and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of people.
Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.
Joy is that kind of happiness that does not depend on what happens.
Gratitude. More aware of what you have than what you don't. Recognizing the treasure in the simple - a child's hug, fertile soil, a golden sunset. Relishing in the comfort of the common.
The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.
Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.
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