Art begins when a man, with a purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs.
Leo TolstoyRead
Perhaps it's because I appreciate all I have so much that I don't worry about what I haven't got.
Interpretation
Appreciating what you have can lead to a more content and worry-free life.
In this quote, Leo Tolstoy expresses that a deep appreciation for one's current possessions and experiences can alleviate feelings of anxiety about lacking other things. By focusing on gratitude rather than longing, one can find peace and fulfillment in the present moment, leading to a happier state of being.
In practice
During a motivational speech about finding joy in small things.
Art begins when a man, with a purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs.
Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the retreating, twinkling stars. "And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!" thought Pierre. "And all this they've caught and put in a shed and boarded it up!
People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing-refusing to participate in activities that make life bad.
It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes.
Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man in music, and in that is its power and significance.
A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor β such is my idea of happiness.
Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.
Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.
Joy is a return to the deep harmony of body, mind, and spirit that was yours at birth and that can be yours again. That openness to love, that capacity for wholeness with the world around you, is still within you.
It is vital that people "count their blessings:" to appreciate what they possess without having to undergo its actual loss.
Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
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