Having a yacht is a reason for being more cheerful than most.
Interpretation
Owning a yacht brings joy and a sense of privilege to one's life.
In this quote, Kurt Vonnegut suggests that possessing a yacht symbolizes a lifestyle of affluence that goes beyond material wealth; it embodies a sense of happiness that many aspire to achieve. The quote reflects the idea that certain possessions can elevate one's mood and perspective, highlighting how status can influence overall happiness.
In practice
During a motivational speech about the joys of life at a charity event.
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.
Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.
Money brings some happiness. But after a certain point, it just brings more money.
You traverse the world in search of happiness which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.
It's nonsense to say money doesn't buy happiness, but people exaggerate the extent to which more money can buy more happiness.
The first and indispensable requisite of happiness is a clear conscience.
The rights essential to happiness. . . . We claim them from a higher source - from the King of kings and Lord of all the earth.
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