O Lord! Unhappy is the man whom man can make unhappy.
Interpretation
Happiness should come from within, not from external circumstances or the opinions of others.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the idea that true unhappiness stems from allowing others to control our emotions. It suggests that a person who lets external factors determine their happiness is vulnerable to the whims of others, and therefore lacks true inner strength and independence.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-esteem, one might quote this to encourage people to find their happiness internally.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
We think of prayer as a preparation for work, or a calm after having done work, whereas prayer is the essential work.
Sadness is just a place on the map. Don't try to avoid it, resist it or escape through substances. Settle it, allow it, and it will go.
The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
My father, my mother, and then my father was always on top of me - 'Keep your nose clean. Do you love what you're doing?' 'Yes.' 'Then be aware, or you're going to lose it.'
A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.
Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.