Satiety depends not at all on how much we eat, but on how we eat. It's the same with happiness, the very same...happiness doesn't depend on how many external blessings we have snatched from life. It depends only on our attitude toward them. There's a saying about it in the Taoist ethic: 'Whoever is capable of contentment will always be satisfied.
Interpretation
Happiness is determined by our attitude towards life rather than the quantity of our possessions.
This quote by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn emphasizes that true happiness does not come from external circumstances or material abundance, but rather from an individual's mindset and perspective. Contentment is a state of mind that allows one to find satisfaction and joy in life regardless of the abundance of external riches or blessings, highlighting the importance of inner peace and gratitude.
In practice
In a speech about mental well-being, one might say, 'As Solzhenitsyn noted, happiness arises from our attitude, not our possessions.'
At what point, then, should one resist? When one's belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one's home? An arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not matter, and there seems no point in arguing about one of them individually...and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together implacably constitute the arrest.
To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology - that is what gives devildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.
Today when we say the West we are already referring to the West and to Russia. We could use the word 'modernity' if we exclude Africa, and the Islamic world, and partially China.
To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.
Like a bicycle, like a wheel that, once rolling, is stable only so long as it keeps moving but falls when its momentum stops, so the game between a man and woman, once begun, can exist only so long as it progresses. If the forward movement today is no more than it was yesterday, the game is over.
It's an universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.
Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.
The opposite of play is not work—the opposite of play is depression.
Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is
If we endure all things patiently and with gladness, thinking on the sufferings of our Blessed Lord, and bearing all for the love of Him: herein is perfect joy.
Everyday happiness means you can't wait to come home, because the soup is hot.
Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly.
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