Women have been called queens for a long time, but the kingdom given them isn't worth ruling.
Louisa May AlcottRead
I'm perfectly miserable; but if you consider me presentable, I die happy.
Interpretation
The speaker feels unhappy but values being accepted by others above their own misery.
In this quote, Louisa May Alcott expresses a deep contrast between personal feelings of misery and the desire for external validation. Despite feeling 'perfectly miserable', the speaker finds solace in the acceptance and approval of others, suggesting that social acceptance can sometimes provide a sense of fulfillment that overshadows personal unhappiness.
In practice
Use this quote in a speech about the importance of social acceptance and its impact on personal happiness.
Women have been called queens for a long time, but the kingdom given them isn't worth ruling.
You have grown abominably lazy, and you like gossip, and waste time on frivolous things, you are contented to be petted and admired by silly people, instead of being loved and respected by wise ones.
"Stay" is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary.
... swept into the giddy vortex which keeps so many young people revolving aimlessly, till they go down or are cast upon the shore, wrecks of what they might have been
Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.
It takes two flints to make a fire.
Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.
Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
To eke out the most happiness from an experience, we must anticipate it, savor it as it unfolds, express happiness, and recall a happy memory.
True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.
For, if we take an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has respect either to the understanding or the senses, we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this short definition: that it is a perpetual possession of being well deceived.
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