To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.
Benjamin FranklinRead
What is without us has no connection with happiness, only so far as the preservation of our lives and health depends upon it. . . . Happiness springs immediately from the mind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True happiness originates from within ourselves and is not solely reliant on external circumstances.
In this quote, Benjamin Franklin emphasizes that happiness is fundamentally a state of mind, suggesting that external factors only play a minimal role in our overall well-being. While our lives and health are important, true contentment and joy must come from our inner thoughts and attitudes, rather than being dependent on what exists outside of us.
Themes
HappinessMindWell-BeingContentmentInternal
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about finding joy, one might say, 'Remember, as Benjamin Franklin wisely noted, happiness springs from the mind.'
More from Benjamin Franklin
All quotes →He'll cheat without scruple, who can without fear.
Benjamin FranklinRead
[E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land, becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and a share in the Government of the Country.
Benjamin FranklinRead
Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benjamin FranklinRead
Let honesty and industry be thy constant companions, and spend one penny less than thy clear gains; then shall thy pocket begin to thrive; creditors will not insult, nor want oppress, nor hungerness bite, nor nakedness freeze thee
Benjamin FranklinRead
I think that a young state, like a young virgin, should modestly stay at home, and wait the application of suitors for an alliance with her; and not run about offering her amity to all the world; and hazarding their refusal. Our virgin is a jolly one; and tho at present not very rich, will in time be a great fortune, and where she has a favorable predisposition, it seems to me well worth cultivating.
Benjamin FranklinRead
Similar quotes
A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted.
George SantayanaRead
We live in an ascending scale when we live happily, one thing leading to another in an endless series.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.
Roald DahlRead
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
Marcus AureliusRead
To a young heart everything is fun.
Charles DickensRead
If you think there's something you need in order to be happy, then you believe in lack. Then believing you lack, you will create more lack.
Marianne WilliamsonRead