[Happiness is] a ghost, it’s a shadow. You can’t really chase it. It’s a by-product, a very pleasant side effect to a life lived well.
Eric WeinerRead
Our happiness is completely and utterly intertwined with other people: family and friends and neighbors and the woman you hardly notice who cleans your office. Happiness is not a noun or verb. It's a conjunction. Connective tissue.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness is deeply connected to our relationships with others and is not an isolated feeling.
In this quote, Eric Weiner emphasizes that happiness is not a solitary concept, but rather a complex web of connections with the people around us. He suggests that our joy and satisfaction in life are intricately linked to our interactions and relationships with family, friends, and even those we might overlook in our daily lives. Happiness, he argues, is akin to a conjunction that binds us to others, illustrating that our emotional well-being depends on our social bonds and the appreciation of those who contribute to our lives.
Themes
HappinessRelationshipsConnectionsPeopleSocial
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community, one could quote this to emphasize the importance of relationships.
More from Eric Weiner
All quotes →I've spent most of my life trying to think my way to happiness, and my failure to achieve that goal only proves, in my mind, that I am not a good enough thinker. It never occurred to me that the source of my unhappiness is not flawed thinking but thinking itself.
Eric WeinerRead
Similar quotes
When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.
Bob HopeRead
Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
We never repent of having eaten too little.
Thomas JeffersonRead
If you refuse to be happy until you have no problems or challenges, you will probably never be happy!
Joyce MeyerRead
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
PlatoRead
But the rest are even scared to open up and laugh. You know, that's the first thing that got me about this place, that there wasn't anybody laughing. I haven't heard a real laugh since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.
Ken KeseyRead