My biography of Frank Sinatra is not paean to his music but rather an illumination of the man behind the music, who once described himself as ‘an 18-karat manic-depressive who lived a life of violent emotional contradictions with an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as happiness.’ 685
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it. 654
The life and liberty and property and happiness of the common man throughout the world are at the absolute mercy of a few persons whom he has never seen, involved in complicated quarrels that he has never heard of. 1.28K
I think people should know more of Africa in terms of its joie de vivre, its feeling for life. In spite of the images that one knows about Africa – the economic poverty, the corruption – there’s a joy to living and a happiness in community, living together, in community life, which may be missing here in America. 707
So here is one of my theories on happiness: we cannot know if we have lived a truly happy life until the very end. This view of life and death was reinforced by my close witnessing of the buildup to the death of Philip Gould. Philip was without doubt my closest friend in politics. When he died, I felt like I had lost a limb. 716
I think essentially the meaning of life is probably the journey and not really any one thing or an outcome or a result. I think it’s kinda the process and I think that if you can find happiness in the process then maybe that’s it. 2.29K
Once I found professional happiness, it gave me time to think about other areas in my life in which I wasn’t happy. The next obvious candidate for introspection was my marriage. 2.03K
Although one may fail to find happiness in theatrical life, one never wishes to give it up after having once tasted its fruits. 1.62K
History shows that our way of life is the stronger way. From it has come more wealth, more industry, more happiness, more human enlightenment than from any other way. 621
I have to keep reminding myself: If you give your life to God, he doesn’t promise you happiness and that everything will go well. But he does promise you peace. You can have peace and joy, even in bad circumstances. 693
Getting pregnant wasn’t easy, and I found that devastating. I really beat myself up for waiting so long when I’d always wanted children and family had been the basis of my happiness my whole life. 708
The one happiness is to shut one’s door upon a little room, with a table before one, and to create; to create life in that isolation from life. 695
I think life is difficult and that’s that. I am not at all – absolutely not at all – interested in the pursuit of happiness. I am not interested in the pursuit of positivity. I am interested in pursuing a truth, and the truth often seems to be not happiness but its opposite. 719
I will never forget my beautiful days with you in Shanklin, they are certainly the most pleasant ones of my life. Look, I have tears in my eyes just to think about it. I am furious to be here, it is the end of happiness for a whole year. 738
While I gave up God a long time ago, I never shook the habit of wanting to believe in something. So I replaced my creed of everlasting life with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 692
The pop musicians often leave meaning in the dust and substitute it for cartoons. The deeper artists – the grunge artists in the world and the emoticon people – tend to leave all of the happiness out of life like it just doesn’t exist. 753
When I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was to escape what I thought was the country and get to a city. Probably film and television had influenced me so much, I really thought the key to happiness was living a very artificial life in a penthouse in New York with martini glasses. 592
