David Starr Jordan Quotes

If you're unhappy with what you've had over the last 50 years, you have an unfortunate misappraisal of life. It's as good as it gets, and it's very likely to get worse.

How unbearable at times are people who are happy, people for whom everything works out.

He who awaits much can expect little.

The more people told me that, you know, wow, you should be so blessed. Don't you feel blessed? And you have all this - mansion and all these beautiful things. And I said, you know - the more they told me that, the more depressed I got.

I don't know whether I'm misanthropic. It seems to me I'm constantly disappointed. I'm very easily disappointed.

I am quite miserable because I'm never satisfied with what I've got. You're always looking for that next high, and that is what I would define as happiness.

Damn the sword! When Virginia wanted a sword, I gave her one. Now she sends me a toy! I require bread!

Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it.

I really try to enjoy life and have joy with what I do.

The secret to life is finding joy in ordinary things. I'm interested in happiness.

We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier.

I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.

The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.

Happiness? No, it's not there for me.

Looking for the perfect day is not going to make us happy, because that day isn't going to come.

No matter who you are, the grass is never greener on the other side.

But it's only through joy and happiness that life has any value or purpose.

Instead of just surviving life and hoping to make it through one more day, I live my life with joy now, and I'm incredibly grateful.

I've tried to figure out ways to be less pleased other than the search for perfection. Talk about a thing that'll make you have a miserable life. On that quest, on that journey, down that path, there's a lot of feelings of, 'Why am I doing all this?'

There are many things that I value, and many of them have nothing to do with my salary.

Own what you have, be happy, love your family, and be sure of yourself no matter what passion you are chasing.

Be contented with whatsoever is; never ask for more. The moment you ask for more you have asked for hell. The moment you ask for more you have asked for misery. The desire for more creates misery.

The only dependable law of life - everything is always worse than you thought it was going to be.

Your dreams should never be better than your real life

And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea.