Jules Verne on happiness

The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides.

The sea does not belong to despots. Upon its surface men can still exercise unjust laws, fight, tear one another to pieces, and be carried away with terrestrial horrors. But at thirty feet below its level, their reign ceases, their influence is quenched, and their power disappears.

Ah! sir, live⁠—live in the bosom of the waters! There only is independence! There I recognise no masters! There I am free!

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