The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others.- William Lyon Phelps, born on this date in 1865
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Thought for the day ...
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"Promptly one starts recalling such Happiness Boys as Nietzsche, Socrates, de Maupassant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, William Blake and Poe. One wonders, with hungry curiosity, what were some of the other definitions that Professor Phelps chucked aside in order to give preference to this one."
ReplyDelete-- Dorothy Parker
Hi Bill,
ReplyDeleteOf course, Miss Parker is assuming that Professor Phelps believed that the people she mentions had interesting thoughts. He may have believed that of Socrates, but the others? I'm not so sure. Blake, however, seems to have been a happy man.
Blake was a nutter, Frank. One need only look at his drawings of Heaven & Hell to see that.
ReplyDeleteWell, he may have been a bit daft, but here is what I wrote in my review of Peter Ackroyd's excellent biography of Blake: "... despite poverty, neglect and scorn, Blake managed to be that rarest of creatures, a happy man, capable - during one of the darker periods of his life, no less - of scribbling in ecstasy: `What it will be Questioned When the Sun rises do you not see a round Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea O no no I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty.'
ReplyDeleteNice quote. I believe he was manic without the depressive. I'm not surprised much of it became religious mania (he a famous Swedenborgian. In fact, didn't you and Debbie go with me and Allan once to Bryn Athyn for one of their "Revelations" pageants?).
ReplyDeleteYes we did. I don't recall that Allan came along, though.
ReplyDelete