The Happiness Project: Happiness quotation from Samuel Johnson.

THE HAPPINESS PROJECT is the memoir of the year I spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier – happily, it was a #1 New York Times bestseller. As one of the hundreds of experiments I've conducted, I started this blog. Here, I recount my daily adventures in pursuit of happiness. –

Gretchen Rubin

Twelve Personal Commandments

Four Splendid Truths

First: To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
Second: One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
Third: The days are long, but the years are short. (click the link to see my one-minute movie)
Fourth: You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.

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What Started Me Thinking

"The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up." Mark Twain
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” Robert Louis Stevenson
"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” Simone Weil
“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” Colette
“It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G. K. Chesterton
“A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.” Joseph Addison
“Best is good. Better is best.” Lisa Grunwald
“Order is Heaven’s first law.” Alexander Pope

Happiness Theories I Reject

Flaubert: "To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless."
Vauvenargues: “There are men who are happy without knowing it.”
Eric Hoffer: “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
Sartre: "Hell is other people."
Willa Cather: “One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”
Alexander Smith: “We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.”
John Stuart Mill: “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”

Happiness quotation from Samuel Johnson.

Samueljohnson Johnson: "As the Spanish proverb says, 'He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him,' so it is with travelling, –-a man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge."
--Boswell, Life of Johnson

Not a day goes by that I don't think about this line from Johnson.

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I love 43 Folders.

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Interested in starting your own Happiness Project? If you’d like to take a look at my Resolutions Chart, for inspiration, just email me at grubin, then the “at” sign, then gretchenrubin dot com. No need to write anything more than “Resolutions Chart” in the subject line.

Posted September 13, 2008 in Quotation

Comments

Gretchen,
Thank you for the link to 43 folders. What a treasure trove for the serial procrastinator - like me!
love
Heather

Posted by: Heather Bestel | September 14, 2008 at 05:44 AM

I must admit that I'm a little puzzled by the meaning of this quotation. I think the Spanish proverb means something like, "Even good fortune can have unanticipated drawbacks". But I'm still scratching my head over Johnson's additional comment regarding knowledge.

Posted by: Alex C. | September 14, 2008 at 04:43 PM

You certainly are a big fan of old Sam Johnson! Great quote.

http://yinvsyang.com/

Posted by: Pete | September 15, 2008 at 10:09 AM

@Alex C.

My interpretation is that the first quote means you must be able to carry the wealth of the west indies in order to bring it home (literal).

sam's addition, is that the same goes for knowledge. You must be able to carry the knowledge with you, if you want to bring it home. In another words, if you are not open to it, or prepared for it, you will get nothing out of the knowledge gained by traveling.

At least that's my take.

http://yinvsyang.com/

Posted by: Pete | September 15, 2008 at 10:11 AM

you sure know a lot of Sam Jo. - inspiring quote i must say. Thanks for sharing.

Posted by: Suzy, Grafdom | September 18, 2008 at 02:23 PM

I believe it means you must have awareness to learn to learn more!

Posted by: Maureen | September 20, 2008 at 01:08 PM

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Gretchen Rubin is the best-selling writer whose book, The Happiness Project, is the account of the year she spent test-driving studies and theories about how to be happier. Here, she shares her insights to help you create your own happiness project.