Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.
Hosea BallouRead
Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True happiness is easy to attain, but people often sacrifice too much for false happiness.
In this quote, Hosea Ballou suggests that genuine happiness is not complicated or costly, yet humans tend to invest significantly in seeking illusions of happiness that do not fulfill them. This highlights the irony of how we often prioritize superficial pleasures, neglecting the simple joys that lead to real contentment.
Themes
HappinessFalseContentmentJoyValue
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about finding joy in simple things.
More from Hosea Ballou
All quotes βReligion which requires persecution to sustain, it is of the devil's propagation.
Hosea BallouRead
Similar quotes
Summer time an' the livin' is easy, Fish are jumpin' an' the cotton is high. Oh, yo' daddy's rich, and yo' ma' is good-lookin', So hush, little baby, don' yo' cry.
Ira GershwinRead
All happiness comes from awareness. The more we are conscious the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Every moment of happiness requires a great amount of Ignorance
Honore De BalzacRead
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Franklin D. RooseveltRead
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.
Eric WeinerRead
Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother TeresaRead