But what is after all the happiness of mere power? There is a greater happiness possible than to be lord of heaven and earth; that is the happiness of being truly loved.
Interpretation
True happiness comes from being loved rather than holding power.
Lafcadio Hearn's quote emphasizes that despite the allure of power and control over the world, a deeper and more profound happiness is found in genuine love and affection from others. It suggests that relationships and emotional connections fulfill us in ways that authority and dominance cannot.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of emotional well-being, one might say, 'As Lafcadio Hearn reminds us, true happiness comes from being truly loved.'
The tea ceremony requires years of training and practice ... yet the whole of this art, as to its detail, signifies no more than the making and serving of a cup of tea. The supremely important matter is that the act be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful, most charming manner possible.
No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, until he has a child and loves it. And then the whole universe changes and nothing will ever again seem exactly as it seemed before.
Japanese affection is not uttered in words; it scarcely appears even in the tone of voice; it is chiefly shown in acts of exquisite courtesy and kindness.
In the world of reality the more beautiful a work of art, the longer, we may be sure, was the time required to make it, and the greater the number of different minds which assisted in its development.
If you distill the essence of everything, what life is about, every single one of us is given a short moment in time on this planet, and we all have one universal need and desire, and that is to be loved and to love. And to deny that for your own political expediency, I don't want to live in that column. It ain't worth it.
O Mistress mine, where are you roaming? O, stay and hear; your true love's coming, That can sing both high and low: Trip no further, pretty sweeting; Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man's son doth know. What is love? 'Tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter; What's to come is still unsure: In delay there lies not plenty; Then, come kiss me, sweet and twenty, Youth's a stuff will not endure.
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.
Love is a learned behavior. If you don't learn how to love yourself someone will teach you how to hate yourself.
We are not actually equal - humanity - if we are not allowed to freely love one another.
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