And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing and appreciating moments of happiness.
Kurt Vonnegut encourages us to become aware of our moments of joy and to express our appreciation for them. By acknowledging these happy instances and vocalizing our gratitude, we deepen our connection to our own well-being and foster a positive perspective on life.
In practice
This quote would be perfect for a speech about mental health and the importance of recognizing joyful moments.
But by accident, not by cunning calculation, books, because of their weight and texture, and because of their sweetly token resistance to manipulation, involve our hands and eyes, and then our minds and souls, in a spiritual adventure I would be very sorry for my grandchildren not to know about.
I was not an anthropology student prior to the war. I took it up as part of a personal readjustment following some bewildering experiences as an infantryman and later as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany. The science of the Study of Man has been extremely satisfactory from that personal standpoint.
How subservient to Jesus, or to a humane God Almighty, were the leaders of this country back in the 1840's, when Marx said such a supposedly evil thing about religion? They had made it perfectly legal to own human slaves, and weren't going to led women vote or hold public office, God forbid, for another eighty year.
All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States - and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!
Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies - "God damn it, you've got to be kind."
If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Tralfamadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed. Still--if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I'm grateful that so many of those moments are nice.
So much of what you take for granted is the bedrock of happiness.
Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves.
There is nothing quite so satisfying, and so healing, as a good cry.
Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness
There are days when simply seeing feels like happiness itself....You feel so rich, the elation seems almost excessive and you want to share it
Surely it is a sin to reject the few gifts we are given. Be happy in the flash of time granted to us or hurt forever.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.