I find, in being black, a thing of beauty: a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness.
Interpretation
This quote expresses pride and joy in one's identity and heritage.
Ossie Davis highlights the intrinsic beauty and strength found in being black, suggesting that this identity brings a unique joy and an inner gladness that can be both a source of strength and a celebratory secret. It speaks to the resilience and positivity that can arise from embracing one's cultural identity.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech celebrating cultural diversity.
Here - at this final hour, Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its brightest hopes - extinguished now, and gone from us forever.... Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captain - and we will smile. ...We will answer and say unto them, βDid you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever really listen to him? ...For if you did you would know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him.'
Smile, it's easier than explaning why you're sad
Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony.
Happiness doesn't always come from a pursuit. Sometimes it comes when we least expect it.
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.
I'm proud to have been a Yankee. But I have found more happiness and contentment since I came back home to San Francisco than any man has a right to deserve. This is the friendliest city in the world.
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.
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