Helen Garner on Happiness: ‘It’s Taken Me 80 Years to Figure Out It’s Not a Tranquil, Sunlit Realm’
by Helen Garner
added by Keely Adler and · updated 6mo ago
Helen Garner on Happiness: ‘It’s Taken Me 80 Years to Figure Out It’s Not a Tranquil, Sunlit Realm’
- I largely agree with the conservative strain of thinkers who dig up the old wisdom of how self-inflicted responsibility makes you happier, our gardens that we care for, I think that must be true. Starting a family, a company, does that to you. But perfect happiness in my life I have only ever felt in moments of utter peace, that transcendence, all ... See more
from The Fog of Change
Daniela Terra added
“Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder.”
― Henry David Thoreaufrom 30 Useful Concepts (Spring 2024)
Agalia Tan added
- Happiness to me is mainly not suffering, not desiring, not thinking too much about the future or the past, really embracing the present moment and the reality of what is, and the way it is.
from Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
sari added
Sriya Sridhar and added
Oliver Burkeman's Last Column: The Eight Secrets to a (Fairly) Fulfilled Life
7 highlights
sari and added
- Very few people understand on any level why they’re able to do what they do. Why their relationship works. Why they’re good at their job. Why they’re happy. I remember Helena Fitzgerald writing that people make more art about sadness because it’s so much easier to analyze than happiness, and that continues to ring true to me. It’s really, really ha... See more
from inarticulable knowledge by Ava
phoebe added