Joy can grow when attention moves away from constant self-concern and becomes absorbed in people, work, ideas, or experiences beyond oneself.
The Story of My Life; Keller links happiness with moments when self-consciousness recedes.
“It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
Giving becomes deeper when it includes time, attention, effort, and presence rather than possessions alone.
The Prophet, “On Giving.”
“You give but little when you give of your possessions.”
Possessions can be given without much personal cost; Gibran prepares the contrast with giving one’s own time and presence.
The Prophet, “On Giving.”
“If you want to be happy, if you want to live a contented life, if you want to live a life of genuine pleasure, do something for somebody else.”
The address directs attention away from self-absorption and toward concrete help for another person as Washington’s preferred route to a more contented life.
Character Building, “Helping Others,” Project Gutenberg #60484. The statement is moral advice inside a school address and is not presented as clinical treatment for unhappiness.
“The memory of a good deed lives.”
A worthwhile action can leave a durable impression after the action itself has passed, much as fragrance remains in an emptied vessel.
Moral printed after “The Old Woman and the Wine-Jar” in the Townsend translation.
“He that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.”
Happiness is linked with mercy toward people in need, shifting the focus from private possession toward useful generosity.
Proverbs 14:21 in the King James Version; concluding clause of the verse.
“Do not find your happiness in another’s sorrow.”
A person’s good fortune is morally diminished when it depends on enjoying somebody else’s pain or humiliation.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 18, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
