John Flavel Quotes

Happiness isn't something this island yields easily; the ground is too rocky and the sun too sparse for it to flourish.

When you hate, the only person that suffers is you because most of the people you hate don't know it and the rest don't care.

Once I wanted total happiness - now I will settle for a little less pain.

Count not thyself to have found true peace, if thou hast felt no grief; nor that then all is well if thou hast no adversary; nor that this is perfect, if all things fall out according to thy desire.

A man who values a good night's rest will not lie down with enmity in his heart, if he can help it.

Happiness is an equivalent for all troublesome things.

I have fought and kicked and fasted and prayed and cursed and cried myself to the point of existing.

Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst.

Learn to accept your limits and you'll become a happier person.

It takes more distress and poison to kill someone who has peace of mind and loves life.

Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.

The best happiness will be to escape the worst misery.

Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity.

Unhappiness has nothing to teach, and resignation is ugly.

I will always try to be happy. I don’t think people really understand the value of happiness until they know what it’s like to be in that very, very dark place. It’s not romantic. Not even a little.

Stay strong. Depression lies.

Nothing that has happened has made me feel gloomy or remain depressed. I love my life.

Life is hard and astonishingly complicated.... No one great reform will make it easy. Most of us who work -- or want to work -- will always have trouble or discontent. So we must learn to be calm, and train all our faculties, and make others happy.

There is no failure in life. It all depends how you take things. If you are desiring too much - you want to reach too high, and you cannot - then there is frustration and failure. But if you are not desiring anything and you are perfectly happy wherever you are, life is moment-to-moment victory.

My good fortune is not that I've recovered from mental illness. I have not, nor will I ever. My good fortune lies in having found my life.

I don't burden myself too much with others' expectations - or even my own expectations. I think your happiness grows in direct proportion to your acceptance, and in inverse proportion to your expectations. It's just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other - or doing the next right thing, so to speak.

I need you to be happy. I need one of us to be happy.

Anger punishes the bearer's heart. Who remains angry suffers most. For many, the search for perfection virtually guarantees it will be found, and disregarded in order to continue the search. Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.

There are things money can't buy and hard work can't win. One of them is happiness.

Success may be the ability to be happy with whatever we're stuck with.