Quote by Norman Douglas

Shall I give you my recipe for happiness? I find everything useful and nothing indispensable. I find everything wonderful and nothing miraculous. I reverence the body. I avoid first causes like the plague.


Shall I give you my recipe for happiness? I find everything

Summary

The quote suggests that the recipe for happiness lies in adopting a mindset that appreciates and finds usefulness in everything while recognizing that nothing is absolutely necessary. By perceiving everything as wonderful rather than expecting miracles, one can cultivate contentment. The quote implies a respect for the body and encourages avoiding fixations on first causes, likely meaning avoiding obsessing over complex theories and instead focusing on simple and practical aspects of life. Overall, it suggests a philosophy of finding joy in the ordinary and appreciating what already exists rather than seeking external validation or extraordinary occurrences.

By Norman Douglas
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Random Quotations

If we want to know what happiness is we must seek it, not as if it were a part of gold at the end of the rainbow, but among human beings who are living richly and fully the good life. If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double Dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar gold button that has rolled under the cupboard in his bed room. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living 24 crowded hours of the day. If you live only for yourself you are always an immediate danger of being bored to death with the repetition of your own views and interests. No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellowmen. If your ambition has the momentum of an express train at full speed, if you can no longer stop your mad rush for glory, power, or intellectual supremacy, try to divert your energies into socially useful channels before it is too late.For those who seek the larger happiness and greater effectiveness open to human beings there can be but one philosophy of life, a philosophy of constructive altruism. The truly happy man is always a fighting optimist. Optimism includes not only altruism but also social responsibility, social courage and objectivity. The good life demands a working philosophy as an orientating map of conduct. This is the golden way of life. This is the satisfying life. This is the way to be happy though human.

W. Beran Wolfe, 'How To Be Happy