Burn his house down! Burning people! He says what we’re all thinking!
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Maybe…?
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Does anyone know who said this - without Googling or otherwise looking it up? You may be surprised!
“I used to say to myself that happiness and misery depend on ourselves. If you feel unhappy, raise your self above unhappiness, and so act that your happiness may be independent of all eventualities.”
I’ll reveal it after the standard three guesses.
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Gordon Gekko?
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Nope! Two more, folks!
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Catherine the Great.
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Pharrell Williams?
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i don’t know, but please don’t let it be Donald Trump.
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Sounds maybe like Lincoln, except I know he didn’t act happy. I’m going to go with Fred Rogers.
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A former Stoic? Or former Neitzchean?
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Nice inspiration and all, but I really hate how quotes like this ignore the sufferings of those with chronic depression. And no, prayer doesn’t cure cancer, either.
ETA: Not directed at you @Lucy_Gothro. Just the concept that many healthy people promote. Sure, it can work for the “doldrums”, but healthy people like to push this idea the way rich people tell poor people their station in life is their own fault.
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Listen here take my advice,
Make sure you got no lice,
Get yerself all smellin’ nice,
Try to straighten out yer eyes
Haul yer boots up over yer pants,
Take yer partner out to dance
’cause now you got the chance
and ’tis just as well to be ‘appy.
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My happiness and sadness are indeed independent of external circumstances. That’s what depression does. I’m still depressed even when I’m at my happiest.
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I have major clinical depression. I like the quote, not only because I figured out a way to apply it to myself (she’s not saying, Oh just forget it, blah blah blah), but also because it wasn’t made by some old rich white old guy with a couple of degrees behind him. Or by any man, actually. It was made by a woman who was basically forced to give up who she was to become something she never had imagined becoming.
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Ah, I added at the same time you posted.
The more I consider my father, the more I think this might have been a major contributing factor in my mother’s suicide.
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You mean ableism? Yeah, I know. And we’ll never know how mentally/emotionally healthy Catherine was, either. Each to their own…
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I went to an exhibit about her once – everything from official portraits to personal possessions. The item that touched me the most was the children’s textbook she wrote herself, each page with the same text in multiple languages.
It was easy to get an idea of Catherine the politician, Catherine the leader, Catherine who transformed herself from a German princess to the mother of Russia (and probably saved the monarchy there for a few generations). Catherine the person, not so sure.
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