#pines

While it's true that, as Tolstoy observed, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, and everyone on planet Earth, vale of tears that it is, is certainly entitled to the specificity of his or her suffering, one nonetheless likes to think that literature has the power to render comprehensible different kinds of unhappiness. If it can't do that, what's it good for? ↗

— Elif Batuman

#tolstoy #unhappiness #family

I know that whatever you decide, you’ll be happy, Summer, and that is the only thing I could ever wish. Whatever happens in the rest of this summer, whatever happens the rest of your life, it’s important that you are happy, and stay that way. – Aunt Sookie ↗

— Kailin Gow

#family #happiness #kailin-gow #life #loving-summer

Listen, Harriet. I do unterstand. I know you don't want either to give or to take ... You don't want ever again to have to depend for happiness on another person." "That's true. That's the truest thing you ever said." "All right. I can respect that. Only you've got to play the game. Don't force an emotional situation and then blame me for it." "But I don't want any situation. I want to be left in peace. ↗

— Dorothy L. Sayers

#emotions #freedom #happiness #love #peace

When our emotional health is in a bad state, so is our level of self-esteem. We have to slow down and deal with what is troubling us, so that we can enjoy the simple joy of being happy and at peace with ourselves. ↗

— Jess C. Scott

#body-and-mind #body-image #emotional-freedom #emotional-health #emotional-intelligence

If it gathers dust, give it away ... ↗

— Ian Tucker

#happiness #inner-peace #reiki #freedom

Mankind were intended to be happy... that government being only the means of securing freedom and happiness to the people, whenever it deviates from this end, and their freedom and happiness are in great danger of being irrevocably lost, the government is no longer entitled to their allegiance. ("The Principles of an American Whig"-1777) ↗

— Jamie Iredell

#government #happiness #patriotism #freedom

He had learned that, as there is no situation in the world in which a man can be happy and perfectly free, so there is no situation in which he can be perfectly unhappy and unfree. ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#happiness #freedom

It's more important to be free than to be happy. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#happiness #freedom

I have found that the less expectation you put on others, the more happiness you will find with them and yourself. ↗

— K.L. Toth

#acceptance #friendship #happiness #love #peace

Don’t we get it? To put our arm around someone who is gay, someone who has an addiction, somebody who lives a different lifestyle, someone who is not what we think they should be… doing that has nothing to do with enabling them or accepting what they do as okay by us. It has nothing to do with encouraging them in their practice of what you or I might feel or believe is wrong vs right. It has everything to do with being a good human being. A good person. A good friend. ↗

— Dan Pearce

#charity #christianity #friends #friendship #happiness