STOP AND THINK - Happiness is to take up the struggle in the midst of the raging storm and not to pluck the lute in the moonlight or recite poetry among the blossoms. (Ding Ling, 20th century Chinese author) Just as genuine love is not spooning by the lagoon under the...
STOP AND THINK - We plan for happiness, but we're formed by suffering. (David Brooks, cultural commentator) Suffering and happiness don’t seem to belong in the same sentence. How can we suffer and, at the same time, be happy? The answer lies in thinking beyond the...
STOP AND THINK - Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections. (Tim Timberlake, protestant pastor) If happiness depended on living in a perfect environment, none of us would know what it is like to be...
STOP AND THINK - If man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God? (Blaise Pascal, 17th century French scientist and Christian philosopher) We live in a society that has become more and more secular. Atheists and agnostics often take center stage these days,...
STOP AND THINK - To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy—is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th century American essayist) If you’re not a morning person, perhaps this is the best way to begin your day. Emerson...
STOP AND THINK - Love one another and you will be happy. It is as simple and as difficult as that (Michael Leunig, Australian cultural commentator) Once again we are reminded that to experience real happiness we must be focused outside ourselves. But, as Leunig...
STOP AND THINK - We don't laugh because we are happy—we're happy because we laugh. (William James, 19th & 20th century American philosopher) Laughter may very well be an accurate indication of someone’s state of mind. But James is turning common wisdom around....
STOP AND THINK - Genuine happiness consists in those spiritual qualities of love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. (The Dalai Lama) He went on to say, “For it is these which provide both for our happiness and others’ happiness.” The qualities he...
STOP AND THINK - Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them. (Leo Tolstoy, 19th & 20th century Russian writer and philosopher) So many people are looking outside themselves to find happiness. They try entertainment, look to other...
STOP AND THINK - Happy is he who learns from the misfortunes of others. (Aesops Fables) Life’s adversities often cause depression and the temptation to give up. But if we can learn from others’ problems how to avoid those awful results, we can learn even more from our...
STOP AND THINK - There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself. (Henry David Thoreau, 19th century American poet and philosopher) Thoreau seems to be saying that we are responsible...
STOP AND THINK - To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. (Bertrand Russell, 20th century British philosopher) Doing without is not something we strive for. Most of us have an abundance of things, and what we don’t have, we...