Contentment Quotes - Page 28

• Children internalize their parents' unhappiness. Fortunately, they absorb our contentment just as readily.

  Lucille Ball

  Children, Parent, Unhappiness

  Lucille Ball (1997). “Love, Lucy”, p.196, Penguin

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• When my mouth shall be filled with dust, and the worm shall feed, and feed sweetly upon me, when the ambitious man shall have no satisfaction if the poorest alive tread upon him, nor the poorest receive any contentment in being made equal to princes, for they shall be equal but in dust.

  John Donne

  Men, Dust, Ambitious

  John Donne (2010). “Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel”, p.176, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Be satisfied with what you have.

  Aesop

  Satisfied

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• And where was happiness if it sprung not from the soil? Where contentment if it dwelt not near to Nature?

  Ellen Glasgow

  Nature, Land, Soil

  Ellen Glasgow (2016). “The Voice of the People”, p.150, The Floating Press

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• Dear little head, that lies in calm content Within the gracious hollow that God made In every human shoulder, where He meant Some tired head for comfort should be laid.

  Celia Thaxter

  Lying, Tired, Comfort

  Celia Thaxter (1896). “The Poems of Celia Thaxter”

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• Content is not the pathway to great deeds.

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  Pathways, Deeds

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox (2016). “Complete Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Delphi Classics)”, p.1540, Delphi Classics

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• May I always have a heart superior, with economy suitable, to my fortune.

  William Shenstone

  Heart, May, Economy

  William Shenstone (1804). “Essays on Men and Manners”, p.101

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• Learn this of me, where'er thy lot doth fall,
  Short lot, or not, to be content with all.

  Robert Herrick

  Fall

  Robert Herrick (1852). “Hesperides; or, Works both human and divine”

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• Contentment, as it is a short road and pleasant, has great delight and little trouble.

  Epictetus

  Delight, Littles, Trouble

  Epictetus (2012). “Enchiridion”, p.57, Courier Corporation

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• There are two sorts of content; one is connected with exertion, the other with habits of indolence. The first is a virtue; the other, a vice.

  Maria Edgeworth

  Two, Firsts, Vices

  Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1825). “Works”, p.169

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• Earthly greatness is a nice thing, and requires so much chariness in the managing, as the contentment of it cannot requite.

  Joseph Hall

  Nice, Greatness, Nice Things

  Joseph Hall, Josiah Pratt (1808). “to xviii”, p.16

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• Seeming contentment is real discontent, combined with indolence or self-indulgence, which, while taking no legitimate means of raising itself, delights in bringing others down to its own level.

  John Stuart Mill

  Real, Mean, Self

  John Stuart Mill (2016). “Considerations on Representative Government”, p.86, John Stuart Mill

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• There is some help for all the defects of fortune; for, if a man cannot attain to the length of his wishes, he may have his remedy by cutting of them shorter.

  Abraham Cowley

  Cutting, Men, Wish

  Abraham Cowley, Thomas Sprat (1826). “Prose works of Abraham Cowley ; including his essays in prose and verse”, p.221

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• Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.

  Pearl S. Buck

  People, Joy, Bigs

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• There are times when it is best to be content with what one has, so as not to lose everything.

  Jose Saramago

  Loses

  "The Double". Book by Jose Saramago, 2004.

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• Contentment is the result of a limited imagination.

  Carolyn Wells

  Imagination, Results

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• Happy the life, that in a peaceful stream,
  Obscure, unnoticed through the vale has flow'd;
  The heart that ne'er was charm'd by fortune's gleam
  Is ever sweet contentment's blest abode.

  James Gates Percival

  Sweet, Heart, Peaceful

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• Happy the heart to whom God has given enough strength and courage to suffer for Him, to find happiness in simplicity and the happiness of others.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Heart, Simplicity, Suffering

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 246), 1895.

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• It is not by change of circumstances, but by fitting our spirits to the circumstances in which God has placed us, that we can be reconciled to life and duty.

  Frederick William Robertson

  Spirit, Fitting, Duty

  Frederick William Robertson (1871). “Sermons Preached at Brighton”, p.775

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• None is poor but the mean in mind, the timorous, the weak, and unbelieving; none is wealthy but the affluent in soul, who is satisfied and floweth over.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Mean, Soul, Mind

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1860). “Tupper's Complete Poetical Works: Containing "Proverbial Philosophy," "A Thousand Lines," "Hactenus," "Geraldine," and "Miscellaneous Poems"”, p.185

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• Keep what you have got; the known evil is best.
  [Lat., Habeas ut nactus; nota mala res optima est.]

  Plautus

  Evil, Known

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• Suggestion is generally better than Definition. There is a seeming dogmatism about Definition that is often repellent, while Suggestion, on the contrary, disarms suspicion and summons to co-operation and experiment. Definition provokes discussion. Suggestion provokes to love and good works. Defining is limiting. Suggestion is enlarging. Defining calls a halt; Suggestion calls for an advance. Defining involves the peril of contentment: "I am here, I rest." "Thus far," says Definition, and draws a map. "Westward," cries Suggestion, and builds a boat.

  Maltbie Davenport Babcock

  Definitions, Defining, Suggestions

  Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1901). “Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock”

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• Scuba diving, from the beginning, had an air of dangerous allure. Every landlocked schoolboy knew of its intriguing hazards: the bends, which caused a diver's veins to fizz with carbonated blood until he died a ghastly, percolating death; and rapture of the deep, which took away his reason, filled his heart with false contentment, and drew him down into the ocean gloom.

  Stephen Harrigan

  Ocean, Heart, Air

  Stephen Harrigan (2015). “Water and Light: A Diver's Journey to a Coral Reef”, p.7, University of Texas Press

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• According to my observations, mankind are among the most easily tamable and domesticable of all creatures in the animal world. They are readily reducible to submission, so readily conditionable (to coin a word) as to exhibit an almost incredibly enduring patience under restraint and oppression of the most flagrant character. So far are they from displaying any overweening love of freedom that they show a singular contentment with a condition of servitorship, often showing a curious canine pride in it, and again often simply unaware that they are existing in that condition.

  Albert J. Nock

  Character, Pride, Animal

  "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man" by Albert J. Nock, (p. 314), 1943.

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• Reverence, humility, contentment, gratitude and hearing the good Dhamma, this is the best good luck.

  Gautama Buddha

  Gratitude, Good Luck, Humility

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