Sunday, July 27, 2008 – Finding Comfort
Despite the common delusion to the contrary, the philosophy of doubt is far more comforting than that of hope. The doubter escapes the worst penalty of the man of faith and hope; he is never disappointed, and hence never indignant. The inexplicable and irremediable may interest him, but they do not enrage him, or, I, may add, fool him. This immunity is worth all the dubious assurances ever foisted upon man. It is pragmatically impregnable. Moreover, it makes for tolerance and sympathy. The doubter does not hate his opponents; he sympathizes with them. In the end he may even come to sympathize with God. The old idea of fatherhood submerges in a new idea of brotherhood. God, too, is beset by limitations, difficulties, broken hopes. Is it disconcerting to think of Him thus? Well, is it any less disconcerting to think of Him as able to ease and answer, and yet failing? ~ H.L. Mencken, from “Damn, a Book of Calumny”
Wait for a time, exactly under the star. Then, if a little man appears who laughs, who has golden hair and who refuses to answer questions, you will know who he is. If this should happen, please comfort me. Send me word that he has come back. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle. ~ Albert Einstein
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth, only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. ~ C. S. Lewis
Nothing contributes more to a person’s peace of mind than having no opinions at all. ~ G. C. Lichtenberg
Cats are connoisseurs of comfort. ~ James Herriot
Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick. ~ Gwyneth Paltrow
Contentment is, after all, simply refined indolence. ~ Thomas C. Haliburton
The contented man can be happy with what appears to be useless. ~ Hung Ko
If you can look back on your life with contentment, you have one of man’s most precious gifts – a selective memory. ~ Jim Fiebig
One should either be sad or joyful. Contentment is a warm sty for eaters and sleepers. ~ Eugene O’Neill
I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time. ~ Charlie Brown (Charles Schulz)
Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world. ~ Lily Tomlin
We experience moments absolutely free from worry. These brief respites are called panic. ~ Cullen Hightower
Love looks forward, hate looks back – anxiety has eyes all over its head. ~ Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960
They need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won’t be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end. ~ Jack Kerouac
What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring. ~ C .S. Lewis
I think that there were only two people in my high school that were comfortable there, and I think they are both pumping gas now. ~ Grant Show
Those who seek for much are left in want of much. Happy is he to whom God has given, with sparing hand, as much as is enough. [Multa petentibus Desunt multa. Bene est, cui Deus obtulit Parca, quod satis est manu.] ~ Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Carmina
Curiosity endows the people who have it with a generosity in argument and a serenity in their own mode of life which springs from their cheerful willingness to let life take the form it will. ~ Alistair Cooke
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Just Above Sunset 