QuoteProject
The perfection of wisdom, and the end of true philosophy is to proportion our wants to our possessions, our ambitions to our capacities, we will then be a happy and a virtuous people.
Mark Twain
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True happiness comes from aligning our desires with what we actually have and can achieve.

Mark Twain suggests that wisdom lies in understanding the relationship between our aspirations and our current circumstances. By moderating our desires to match our possessions and capabilities, we can cultivate a sense of happiness and virtue within ourselves and our communities.

Themes

WisdomHappinessContentmentDesiresPossessions

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage people to find happiness through gratitude.

More from Mark Twain

Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
The easy part of being an artist is figuring out the message that everyone else is ready to hear. The hard part is waiting for the proper lull to make the announcement.
Mark TwainRead
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
Mark TwainRead
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Mark TwainRead
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
Mark TwainRead
In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
Mark TwainRead

Similar quotes

We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don't allow our bodies to heal, and we don't allow our minds and hearts to heal.
Nhat HanhRead
I can't afford to hate anyone. I don't have that kind of time.
Akira KurosawaRead
Sometimes you learn more from losing than winning. Losing forces you to reexamine.
Pat SummittRead
Every idea has to become broad till it covers the whole of this world, every aspiration must go on increasing till it has engulfed the whole of humanity, nay, the whole of life, within its scope.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Your life is a mirror. Life gives us not what we want. Life gives us who we are
Robin SharmaRead
Gratitude is a useless word. You will find it in a dictionary but not in life.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.