If you regularly read this blog you noticed I took an (unexpected) break from blogging in September, when I was supposed to start writing again after an uninspired summer. Well, I didn’t write anything except for one post, and I feel pretty sad about this. I do really care about We Believe in Style but I neglected it for a long time. Too much time. I was thinking about coming back with a post about fashion, as I posted a photo of a draft in my Instagram stories but I decided to finish this old post, dedicated to happiness, which I started to write when I was deeply unhappy. Fashion is coming back, soon!
Happiness has always been a sweet, scary word to me. When it comes to life goals, people use to talk and write about almost everything but happiness. Isn’t it strange? If you google “happiness facts” (if I simply search for happiness an Italian brand of clothing comes out as first result), you’ll find many articles that will say more or less the same things. Doing good for others make us happy, being kind makes us happy, flowers make us happy, happiness is a choice, and blah blah blah. These ideas sound like religion stuff, to me. Of course doing good and being kind make us better persons, but it doesn’t guarantee a state of bliss.
I have the feeling that nowadays happiness is underrated, that some people mistake the pursuit of happiness for selfishness, as if being happy wasn’t necessary to live. Do you wish to be happy? Oh, you’re selfish! The world is a mess and you want to be happy? Oh, you’re sooo selfish! Henrik Ibsen wrote that “it is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life”. I agree.
These are some quotes about happiness. Some of them are pretty unconventional and maybe politically incorrect. That’s why they’re true.
I’ve always found amazing that, back in the 18th century, the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America considered the pursuit of happiness as an unalienable right, along with life and liberty, even if I find very true the words of Italian writer Erri De Luca, who wrote that one must earn and defend his/her freedom but happiness no, that’s a gift.
People, obviously and rightly, have their own idea of happiness and it’s strange they often don’t accept the idea of others. I’m not a big fan of Kanye West (I just like some songs by him) but I immediately loved his words about happiness: “I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‘one size fits all’ standard for happiness”.
The most beautiful and saddest definition of life and happiness I’ve ever read is from “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo (the novel is full of beautiful sentences). “Life is a theatre set in which there are but few practical entrances. Happiness is an antique reliquary painted on one side only”. Aren’t these words so poetic?
Milan Kundera wrote one of my favorite novels, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, where you can find this definition of happiness, which I can relate so much.
And these are other quotes.
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These are among my favorite words about happiness, also because I love butterflies.
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These words are also attributed to Alexander Chalmers and many other writers and thinkers, so I don’t know who actually spoke or wrote them, but they’re beautiful and relatable.
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Choosing the title of this post was difficult. At the beginning I thought about a simple (SEO friendly) title like “true quotes about happiness” or “happiness: a thought and true words”. Then I changed my mind and I went for Edith Wharton’s words, even if the best title could maybe have been “happy are the loved ones and the lovers and those who can do without love. Happy are the happy” by writer Jorge Luis Borges. But it was too long.
To end this post I chose the words of Italian actor and director Roberto Benigni that say (maybe not in the most correct way) “be happy! And if sometimes happiness forgets you, don’t forget happiness!” which always remind me that happiness is the ultimate life goal. Don’t trust those who say it isn’t so.
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