You can make yourself happy or miserable - it's the same amount of effort.
Interpretation
Happiness is a choice that requires the same effort as misery.
In this quote, Ray Bradbury emphasizes the idea that one has the power to influence their own emotional state. By suggesting that happiness and misery both require effort, he encourages individuals to make a conscious choice to pursue happiness, highlighting the significance of perspective in shaping our experiences.
In practice
During a motivational speech about personal happiness.
I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)
I never went to college, so I went to the library.
There must be something in books, something we canβt imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You donβt stay for nothing.
I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
The first thing a writer should be is - excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health.
You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
Never let a day pass without looking for the good, feeling the good within you, praising, appreciating, blessing, and being grateful. Make it your life commitment, and you will stand in utter awe of what happens in your life.
The more we think of others, the happier we are. The more we think of ourselves, the more suffering we feel.
It is safe to be me. I love life. I am always safe and secure. I move forward in life with joy and ease. All is well in my world.
Happiness is a sort of action.
Things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us.
The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it.
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