To get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with
Source: Following the Equator, ch. 48 (1897)
Topic
Joy distinguishes itself from pleasure and happiness in this collection by its relationship to action. Tagore's dream-service-joy progression is the foundational sequence: he dreams that life is joy; he wakes to find life is service; he acts and discovers that service is joy. The circular logic is not a fallacy but a discovery. Wagner's joy-is-in-us-not-in-things corrects the consumer error: joy is not a property of objects or circumstances but of the inner state that engages them. Twain on dividing joy to get its full value is the social observation: joy is not diminished by sharing but increased by it. Ovid's no-unalloyed-pleasure qualifies the entire collection: anxiety mingles with joy as a structural feature of caring about anything. Do-the-right-thing and receive its reward; the higher the pay in enjoyment the higher in cash — Twain's economics of joy are as idiosyncratic as his economics of anything else. What the collection argues is that joy is not a feeling that happens to you but a quality of engagement with whatever you are doing.
To get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with
They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it.
There is no more gracious or perfect delight than when a whole people makes merry.
This seems to me well-nigh the fairest thing in the world.