Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance
Source: Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Topic
Spinoza opens the philosophical case: happiness is virtue itself, not its reward. Washington pairs it with moral duty; Diderot calls it the only genuine passion. The practical voices — Defoe contentedly dividing his day, Franklin's beer — sit alongside Pascal's claim that imagination creates beauty, justice, and happiness together. Holmes offers a key; Karr observes that it is mostly misfortune avoided. The collection resists both the hedonic and the purely ascetic view. These writers notice happiness arriving sideways, in the doing of something worthwhile, in the company of friends, or in the unexpected satisfaction of a quiet and well-organized day. Good for when the direct pursuit of it is failing.
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance
All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others.
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
My heart leaps up when I behold A Rainbow in the sky:
God made the country, and man made the town.
Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.
I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted.