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Now, happiness consists in activity: such is the constitution of our nature: it is a running stream and not a stagnant pool.

— John Mason Good The Book of Nature (1826)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Sometimes cited in shortened form as "Happiness consists in activity; it is a running stream, not a stagnant pool."

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Happiness

More quotes by John Mason Good

Taste is that faculty which selects and relishes such combinations of ideas as produce genuine beauty, and rejects the contrary.

The Book of Nature (1826)

Not worlds on worlds in phalanx deep,
Need we to prove a God is here;
The Daisy, fresh from Winter's sleep,
Tells of his hand in lines as clear.

The perfection of an art consists in the employment of a comprehensive system of laws, commensurate to every purpose within its scope, but concealed from the eye of the spectator; and in the production of effects that seem to flow forth spontaneously, as though uncontrolled by their influence, and which are equally excellent, whether regarded individually, or in reference to the proposed result.

The Book of Nature (1826)

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

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Attribution

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