I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.
Jane AustenRead
I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of finding contentment and joy in one's life, even if it seems undeserved.
In this quote, Jane Austen reflects on the notion of contentment and the human tendency to feel undeserving of happiness. It suggests that one should embrace the joy and happiness they experience and be grateful for it, rather than questioning its legitimacy. The idea is that happiness can sometimes feel unexpected or beyond what one feels entitled to, yet recognizing and accepting that happiness is a vital aspect of a fulfilling life.
In practice
During a motivational speech about finding joy in life despite challenges.
I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.
Nobody could catch cold by the sea; nobody wanted appetite by the sea; nobody wanted spirits; nobody wanted strength. Sea air was healing, softening, relaxing - fortifying and bracing - seemingly just as was wanted - sometimes one, sometimes the other. If the sea breeze failed, the seabath was the certain corrective; and where bathing disagreed, the sea air alone was evidently designed by nature for the cure.
He certainly is very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.
A person who is knowingly bent on bad behavior, gets upset when better behavior is expected of them.
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.
She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.
What can I do with my happiness? How can I keep it, conceal it, bury it where I may never lose it? I want to kneel as it falls over me like rain, gather it up with lace and silk, and press it over myself again.
The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.
It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.
We laughed a lot. That's one thing we forgot about for a few years - laughing. When we went through all the lawsuits, it looked as if everything was bleak, but when I think back to before that, I remember we used to laugh all the time.
I ate apple pie and ice cream—it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer. There were the most beautiful bevies of girls everywhere I looked in Des Moines that afternoon—they were coming home from high school—but I had no time for thoughts like that…So I rushed past the pretty girls, and the prettiest girls in the world live in Des Moines.
The way to be truly happy is to be truly human, and the way to be truly human is to be truly godly.
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