Roger Ebert on happiness

What makes us men is that we can think logically. What makes us human is that we sometimes choose not to.

I believe we are born with our minds open to wonderful experiences, and only slowly learn to limit ourselves to narrow tastes. We are taught to lose our curiosity by the bludgeon-blows of mass marketing, which brainwash us to see ‘hits,’ and discourage exploration.

I arrive at the end of this review having done my duty as a critic. I have described the movie accurately and you have a good idea what you are in for if you go to see it. Most of you will not. I cannot argue with you. Some of you will⁠—the brave and the curious. You embody the spirit of the man who first wondered what it would taste like to eat an oyster.

Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.

Dr. Seuss1904–1991

It was when I was happiest that I longed most…The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing…to find the place where all the beauty came from.

C. S. Lewis1898–1963Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold (1956), Pt. 1, VII (Psyche)

• Beauty

Think of all the beauty that’s still left in and around you, and be happy.

Anne Frank1929–1945

• Beauty