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#PursuitofHappiness

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A quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

     Dream on! Though Heaven may woo our open eyes,
Through their closed lids we look on fairer skies;
Truth is for other worlds, and hope for this;
The cheating future lends the present’s bliss;
Life is a running shade, with fettered hands,
That chases phantoms over shifting sands;
Death a still spectre on a marble seat,
With ever clutching palms and shackled feet;
The airy shapes that mock life’s slender chain,
The flying joys he strives to clasp in vain,
Death only grasps; to live is to pursue, —
Dream on! there’s nothing but illusion true!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Poem (1861), “The Old Player” (closing lines), Songs in Many Keys (1862)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/holmes-sr-oliver-wen…

A quotation from Bertrand Russell

I do not myself think that there is any superior rationality in being unhappy. The wise man will be as happy as circumstances permit, and if he finds the contemplation of the universe painful beyond a point, he will contemplate something else instead.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 2 “Byronic Unhappiness” (1930)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/russell-bertrand/761…

Despite the fact that it’s enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, I think the “the pursuit of happiness” is akin to a snipe hunt. One can be happy; happiness can not be achieved. Being happy is largely a gift of fate, a state of grace, if you have the grace, that is to say detachment, to accept it. Happiness is a conveniently intangible commodity rather like a mortgage derivative. Don't worry, be happy.

A quotation from Billings, Josh:

«
If you are looking after happiness don’t take the turnpike, take one ov the byroads, yu will avoid the tollgates, and find it less crowded and dursty.

[If you are looking after happiness, don’t take the turnpike, take one of the byroads; you will avoid the tollgates, and find it less crowded and dusty.]
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
wist.info/billings-josh/67249/