The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.
Interpretation
Our desires, griefs, and fears often disrupt our happiness.
This quote by Samuel Johnson emphasizes that the primary obstacles to our happiness are rooted in our desires for things we do not have, the grief we experience from losses, and the fears that hold us back. By recognizing these disturbances, we can seek to overcome them and achieve a more fulfilling state of happiness.
In practice
This quote could be used in a self-help seminar to discuss the sources of unhappiness.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
You must be the best judge of your own happiness.
Be grateful for your life, every detail of it, _x000D_ and your face will come to shine like a sun, _x000D_ and everyone who sees it will _x000D_ be made glad and peaceful.
We'd just shared the last beer and slung the empty can out the window at a stop sign and were just waiting back to get the feel of the day, swimming in that kind of tasty drowsiness that comes over you after a day of going hard at something you enjoy doing -- half sunburned and half drunk and keeping awake only because you wanted to savor the taste as long as you could.
To those who have as yet not learned the secret of true happiness, which is the joy of coming into the closest relationship with the Maker and Preserver of all things: begin now to study the little things in your own door yard.
Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and... I believe in miracles.
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