My personal opinion is that the neutral position on the mood spectrum—what I called emotional sea level—is nothappiness but rather contentment and the calm acceptance that is the goal of many kinds of spiritual practice.

You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.

If you’re waiting until you feel talented enough to make it, you’ll never make it.

Let the water flow beneath the bridge; let men be men, that is to say, weak, vain, inconstant, unjust, false, and presumptuous; let the world be the world still; you cannot prevent it. Let every...

…there is more good in contentment, than there is in the thing that you would fain have to cure your discontent…

I am living my dreams.

Real poverty is when hunger pangs force from my mind all thoughts but those of food. Real poverty is when the children are not dressed warmly enough for winter. Real poverty is when the housing...

Dreams aren’t only an illusion to put you into a subconsciously pleasurable state of mind for the time being, but also a pathway to gain complete contentment.

We all want to go there something awful, but to stand there takes some grace.

As impossible as this may seem (in infertility), try to reach outside of yourself and realize all of the things that you are able to do for now because you do not have children. There...

Happy are those who evolve from within.

(about William Blake)As for Blake’s happiness–a man who knew him said: “If asked whether I ever knew among the intellectual, a happy man, Blake would be the only one who would immediately occur to me.”And...

Never let them try out this gratitude, for they would immediately discover that it supplies the first and most important component to happiness: Contentment.

I felt a taste of that other kind of contentment that doesn’t come from acquiring information or getting praise or building a resume, the kind that is just there, like a hidden pearl.

To seek contentment is to release the novelty that lies within monotony

It was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could run. The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in the destination. We have a...

You know someone’s okay if they can ignore things they can’t do anything about and move on.

We need much less than we think we need.

We had made the error of staying small – and there is no more unforgivable crime in America.

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough

Happiness is wanting what you have.

Want is always hungry and searching whereas contentment is steady, calm and receiving.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.

Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress.

If all I had was all that money could buy, I’d be bankrupt!” EL

Contentment has learned how to find out what she needs to know. Last year she went on a major housecleaning spree. First she stood on her head until all the extra facts fell out. Then...

Contentment achieve inwardly change outer realities

There’s Nothing To Hide When Your Soul Is Not Guilty….

Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem

The whole purpose of the winepress is to preserve the grapes. Accept Pressing moments. What you accomplish in a moment of pressure will be used forever.

People will ask you the question ‘how is life treating you?’ But my question is ‘how are you treating life?’ On that your happiness rests

Happiness grows best in the soil of contentment.

Contentment is the only real wealth

Contentment isn’t something that just happens to you, Regan Lee, it’s a choice. You have to want exactly what you have.

Think little of yourselves, but do not think too little of your calling.

The writer’s curse is that even in solitude, no matter its duration, he never grows lonely or bored.

She had had her momentary flowering, a year, perhaps, of wildrose beauty, and then she had suddenly swollen like a fertilized fruit and grown hard and red and coarse, and then her life had been...

Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.

Start from here, now is all you have, there will never be a better place or time and by tomorrow you would have lost more time.

I was so nearly happy. There remained only a tiny something, something unexplained and inexplicable that buzzed in my ear when the lights were out, like a malarial mosquito.

She did not find these riches (of fulfillment). They were a gift from God.

Most beautiful of all was the tarnished gold of the elms, with a little brown in it, a little bronze, a little blue, even– a blue like amethyst, which made them melt into the azure...

She seemed to be occupied with of inner chamber of ideas and to have slight need for visible objects.

Let it be a small gain or big gain never do lesser than one’s ability, let it be a pain or a pleasure never accept more than one’s share.

Greed is supported by an endless cast of what-ifs. Greedy people can never have enough to satisfy the need they feel in light of every conceivable eventuality.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of gratitude, now that would’ve worked. They would have been readily led to contentment, which would’ve then better lead them on to happiness.

Reality. It is sometimes brought through foreign eyes; because if you do not know any better, you cannot see the worse. And vice versa.

Sometimes in life, as in literature, people get their just desserts. The greedy man loses everything because he cannot resist seeking more riches.

I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Nor did I feel ambitious any more. It all seemed stupid wanting to be better than the others in the same ring, shallow, pointless.

Think back. How many of your sweetest dreams, your greatest hopes, your most cherished desires have come true?On the other hand, how much of what you didn’t really care about wound up happening anyway?What you...