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The achievement of happiness requires not the ... satisfaction of our needs ... but the examination and transformation of those needs.

— Stanley Cavell Pursuits of Happiness (1984)

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Happiness

More quotes by Stanley Cavell

The crucified human body is our best picture of the unacknowledged human soul.

I know how to give the meaning of a word but not how to give the intention of a word.

The Division of Talent (1985)

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The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

The key to self-generated happiness (the only reliable kind) is the refusal to take oneself too seriously.

Tom Robbins High Times interview (2002)

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.

Spider Robinson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Stanley Cavell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.