Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.
Interpretation
Happiness stems from finding balance and harmony in life rather than just seeking intense experiences.
In this quote, Thomas Merton emphasizes that true happiness is rooted in the equilibrium of one's life rather than the pursuit of intense emotions or experiences. He suggests that achieving a sense of order, rhythm, and harmony within oneself and one's surroundings is crucial for sustained contentment and joy.
In practice
Use this quote during a wellness seminar to discuss the importance of balance in mental health.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.
Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
You are made in the image of what you desire.
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.
I've taken my fun where I've found it.
I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness.
If this were all to go away tomorrow, all the big success, I would still be very happy going from bar to bar playing music for people.
When you are not happy with your life, always think that someone is happy simply because you exist
If the ingredients for happiness are not within a person, no material success or entertainment or platinum credit cards can make that person smile.
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