• If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

    —Epicurus

  • This hunger must be natural, not artificial and provoked.

    —Rev. Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667), The House of Feasting

  • Many times when we are approached by someone at times when we are fatigued or preoccupied, we are annoyed and discomforted and say, ‘I have no time for you now, come back later, wait for a while’. But Christ the Lord, even on the cross, did not say such phrases. In spite of His pains, He gave due attention to the thief, and answered his request to gladden his heart. He showed us that even on the cross, we can still serve others.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Father, Forgive Them

  • Many, at their time of death weep, not for their sins, but because death will deprive them of the pleasures of life. They weep because death will separate them from their beloved ones and from their lusts; the world is still sweet in their eyes even at the hour of death. Do not think that death surely brings dread to man. No, this is not true for every one. The thief on the right benefitted from the hour of death whereas the thief on the left did not. Whilst the thief on the left was blaspheming and reviling, his companion was praying and supplicating, saying “Remember me, O Lord, when You come into Your kingdom.”

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Father, Forgive Them

  • Was I capable of being happy in solitude? I didn’t think so. Was I capable of being happy in general? That’s the kind of question, I think, that is best not asked.

    Serotonin: A Novel by Michel Houellebecq

  • First Reformed (2017)

  • “I do not avoid women, but I do deny them my essence.”

    Ripper
    Dr. Strangelove (1964)

  • “To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.”

    —Will Durant

  • When you are at peace and not embattled, then humble yourself even more—lest some alien joy arising [in us] we boast and are delivered into battle. For, on account of our frailty, God often does not permit us to be embattled often—lest we be lost.

    —Abba Bessarion

    Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers

  • He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others. At the time his words seemed to me strange, and I did not understand them; but by degrees this became a conviction with me, without thinking about it. He revealed to me a whole new world of joys in the present, without changing anything in my life, without adding anything except himself to each impression in my mind. All that had surrounded me from childhood without saying anything to me, suddenly came to life.

    Family Happiness
    Leo Tolstoy