Felicity Quotes - Page 6

• Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?

  George Washington

  Vices, Impossible, Human Nature

  George Washington, Andrew Jackson (1862). “Washington's Farewell Address: The Proclamation of Jackson Against Nullification, and the Declaration of Independence”, p.9

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• If sensuality were happiness, beasts were happier than men; but human felicity is lodged in the soul, not in the flesh.

  Seneca the Younger

  Happiness, Men, Soul

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• The Heavenly City outshines Rome beyond comparison. There, instead of victory, is truth; instead of high rank, holiness; instead of peace, felicity; instead of life, eternity.

  Saint Augustine

  Rome, Cities, Victory

  Saint Augustine (2003). “City of God”, p.157, Penguin UK

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• It is odd to watch with what feverish ardour Americans pursue prosperity, ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they might not have chosen the shortest route to get it. They cleave to the things of this world as if assured they will never die, and yet rush to snatch any that comes within their reach, as if they expected to stop living before relishing them. Death steps in, in the end, and stops them, before they have grown tired of this futile pursuit of that complete felicity which always escapes them.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Tired, Watches, World

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• We rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things.

  Plutarch

  Happiness, Lying, Men

  Plutarch (1871). “Plutarch's Morals”, p.303

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• Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Expression, Study, Grammar

  Amos Bronson Alcott (1868). “Tablets”, p.122

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• I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life, and I formed written resolutions . . . to practice them ever while I lived.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Honesty, Integrity, Men

  Benjamin Franklin, Horatio Hastings WELD (1849). “Benjamin Franklin: his Autobiography, with a narrative of his public life and services by H. H. Weld”, p.98

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• It is scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated.

  Edward Gibbon

  Military, Eye, Men

  The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ch. 2 (1776 - 1788)

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• Vain are the beliefs and teachings that make man miserable, and false is the goodness that leads him into sorrow and despair, for it is man's purpose to be happy on this earth and lead the way to felicity and preach its gospel wherever he goes.

  Khalil

  Teaching, Men, Sorrow

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• If you yearn for holy felicity,
  shed your arrogance and Become A Seeker Of Hearts.

  Rumi

  Heart, Arrogance, Holy

  Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi (2008). “Love's Ripening: Rumi on the Heart's Journey”, p.10, Shambhala Publications

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• Were the happiness of the next world is as closely apprehended as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdom to live.

  Thomas Browne

  Happiness, World, Next

  'Hydriotaphia' (Urn Burial, 1658) ch. 4

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• In a drear-nighted December, Too happy, happy tree, Thy branches ne'er remember Their green felicity.

  John Keats

  Happiness, Tree, Branches

  'In drear nighted December' (written 1817)

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• I have now reigned above fifty years in victory and peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to be wanting for my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to fourteen. O man, place not thy confidence in this present world!

  Abd-ar-Rahman III

  Happiness, Peace, Men

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• To live without feeling or exciting sympathy, to be fortunate without adding to the felicity of others, or afflicted without tasting the balm of pity, is a state more gloomy than solitude; it is not retreat, but exclusion from mankind. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pain, Solitude, Feelings

  Rasselas ch. 26 (1759)

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• In his address of 19 September 1796, given as he prepared to leave office, President George Washington spoke about the importance of morality to the country's well-being: Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. . . . And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. . . . Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue?

  George Washington

  Country, Office, Support

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• Yet is there one more cursed than they all,
  That canker-worm, that monster, jealousie,
  Which eats the heart and feeds upon the gall,
  Turning all love's delight to misery,
  Through fear of losing his felicity.

  Edmund Spenser

  Jealousy, Heart, Monsters

  Edmund Spenser, John Aikin (1810). “Hymns. Visions. Elegiac poems”, p.14

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• The repose necessary to all beauty is repose, not of inanition, nor of luxury, nor of irresolution, but the repose of magnificent energy and being; in action, the calmness of trust and determination; in rest, the consciousness of duty accomplished and of victory won; and this repose and this felicity can take place as well in the midst of trial and tempest, as beside the waters of comfort.

  John Ruskin

  Determination, Luxury, Water

  John Ruskin (1848). “Modern Painters”, p.107

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• Poetry interprets in two ways: it interprets by expressing, with magical felicity, the physiognomy and movements of the outward world; and it interprets by expressing, with inspired conviction, the ideas and laws of the inward world of man's moral and spiritual nature. In other words, poetry is interpretative both by having natural magic in it, and by having moral profundity.

  Matthew Arnold

  Spiritual, Men, Law

  Matthew Arnold (1875). “Essays in Criticism”, p.128, London : [s.n.]

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• The cloud which appeared to the prophet Ezekiel carried with it winds and storms, but it was environed with a golden circle, to teach us that the storms of afflictions, which happen to God's children, are encompassed with brightness and smiling felicity.

  Nicolas Caussin

  Children, Ezekiel, Clouds

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• Life is atrocious, we know. But precisely because I expect little of the human condition, man's periods of felicity, his partial progress, his efforts to begin over again and continue, all seem to me like so many prodigies which nearly compensate for the monstrous mass of ills and defeats, of indifference and error. Catastrophe and ruin will come; disorder will triumph, but order will too, from time to time.

  Marguerite Yourcenar

  Loss, Men, Order

  Marguerite Yourcenar (1954). “Memoirs of Hadrian”

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• I want books written out of a brain and heart and soul crowded and vital with Life, spelled with a big L. I want poetry bursting with passion. I don't care a hang for the 'verbal felicities.' They'll do for the fringe, but I want the garment to warm me first.

  Gertrude Atherton

  Book, Passion, Heart

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• While 'Felicity' was successful in the States, and I had opportunities to do other stuff, I didn't want to do anything to make myself more famous. I wasn't dealing well with the celebrity of all of that. I was 23 - just a kid - and not coming from money, it was all just too much. I just wanted to slow it down a little bit, and gain control.

  Keri Russell

  Kids, Successful, Opportunity

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• Every serious novel is, beyond its immediate thematic preoccupations, a discussion of the craft, a conquest of the form, a conflict with its difficulties and a pursuit of its felicities and beauty.

  Ralph Ellison

  Crafts, Serious, Conflict

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• The pleasure of the senses is always regulated in accordance with the imagination. Man can aspire to felicity only by serving all the whims of his imagination.

  Marquis de Sade

  Men, Imagination, Pleasure

  Sade (marquis de), Marquis de Sade (1987). “The 120 days of Sodom and other writings”, Grove Pr

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• Elysium is as far as to
  The very nearest room,
  If in that room a friend await
  Felicity of doom.

  Emily Dickinson

  Friendship, Happiness, Elysium

  Emily Dickinson (2016). “The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson”, p.24, First Avenue Editions

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