Contented Quotes
More Contented Quotes
The inventor...looks upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.
alexander graham bell— As appears on plaque in the entrance to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada
It is good to be a cynic it is better to be a contented cat and it is best not to exist at all. Universal suicide is the most logical thing in the world we reject it only because of our primitive cowardice and childish fear of the dark. If we were sensible we would seek death the same blissful blank which we enjoyed before we existed.
h. p. lovecraft— "Nietzscheism and Realism" from The Rainbow, Vol. I, No. 1 (October 1921); reprinted in "To Quebec and the Stars", and also in Collected Essays, Volume 5: Philosophy edited by S. T. Joshi, p. 71
Then ye returned to your trinkets; then ye contented your souls With the flannelled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals.
— 1903 'The Islanders'.
The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages; and unless some of its missionaries penetrate there, and erect banking houses and other pious shrines, there is no knowing how long the inhabitants may remain in their present state of contented poverty.
washington irving— The Creole Village published in The Knickerbocker magazine (November 1836). This is origin of the expression almighty dollar. See Edward Bulwer-Lytton for "the pursuit of the almighty dollar". Compare: "Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold, And almost every vice,—almighty gold", Ben Jonson, Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland.
Always contented with his life, and with his dinner, and his wife.
aleksandr pushkin— Eugene Onegin, Ch. 1, st. 12 (1823)
In pale contented sort of discontent.
john keats— 1820 Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems, 'Lamia', pt.2, l.135.
My most neglected wife, till you are a much respected widow,I find you will scarce be a contented woman, and to say no more than the plain truth, I do endeavour so fairly to do you that last good service.
Rochester, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of— c.1677 Letter to his wife, 20 Nov. InTheLetters ofJohnWilmot, Earl of Rochester, edited byJeremyTreglown (1980).
Go anywhere in England where there are natural, wholesome, contented, and really nice English people; and what doyoualwaysfind? Thatthestables arethereal centre of the household.
George Bernard Shaw— 1919 Lady Utterword. Heartbreak House, act 3.
When you learn to make everybody happy, you will possess the golden secret of how to milk the contented voters. But do it in such a way that they won’t think you want them to vote for you just because you need the money.They need the money, and besides, they can think up other reasons if they try.
gracie allen— Ch. 6 : How not to offend anybody
To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.
frederick douglass— Ch. 10 (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845))
There's a certain part of the contented majority who love anybody who is worth a billion dollars.
john kenneth galbraith— The Guardian (UK, 1992-05-23)
A reflective, contented mind is the best possession.
zoroaster— Ushtavaiti Gatha; Yasna 43, 15.
A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.
joseph addison— No. 574 (30 July 1714).
I'm more contented and at peace with myself now than I was as a box-office queen. I'm less uptight. I've even reached a stage where it doesn't shatter me if somebody prints something bad about me.
julie andrews— Saturday Evening Post (February 1980)
When our two souls stand up erect and strong, Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher, Until the lengthening wings break into fire At either curvèd point, :;what bitter wrong Can the earth do to us, that we should not long Be here contented?
— No. XXII (Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850))
He was a tall man with an astonishing and somehow elegant curvature of the spine, formed by an enlarged lower abdomen, which he carried in a stately and contented way, as if it contained money and securities.
john cheever— Description of a Yankee rectorThe Wapshot Scandal (1964)
Under the yaller pines I house, When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-scented, An' hear among their furry boughs The baskin' west-wind purr contented.
james russell lowell— No. 10. (Series II (1866))
Those who observe the nature of the Universe and the commandments of the Law, and know their purpose, see clearly God's mercy and truth in everything; they seek, therefore, that which the Creator intended to be the aim of man, viz., comprehension. Forced also by claims of the body, they seek that which is necessary for the preservation of the body, "bread to eat and garment to clothe," and this is very little; but they seek nothing superfluous; with very slight exertion man can obtain it, so long as he is contented with that which is indispensable.
maimonides— Ch.12 (Part III)
[Mead described the Arapesh as a culture in which both sexes were] placid and contented, unaggressive and noninitiatory, noncompetitive and responsive, warm, docile, and trusting.
Margaret Mead— p. 39 as cited in: Guy R. Lefrançois (1973) Of children; an introduction to child development. p.65
Happy am I; from care I'm free! Why aren't they all contented like me?
— Opera of La Bayadère.
We cannot be young twice; we cannot turn upon our steps, and go back to gather the garlands we gathered ten years ago. And, therefore, with a gaze over on the cross upon the distant hills, and a remembrance always of the shadow land that lies beyond, let us endeavor to be contented with small things, and to make ourselves happy in the pleasantness of simple pleasures.
holme lee— p. 161. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
If a man is trained, purely and simply, to be expert and contented in a particular task he will not innovate; Freud would have remained an anatomist, Marx a philosopher, Darwin a field-naturalist.
john passmore— John Passmore, The Perfectibility of Man, p. 282
The inventor...looks upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.
— Alexander Graham Bell, As appears on plaque in the entrance to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada.
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards; and curiosity itself can be vivid and wholesome only in proportion as the mind is contented and happy.
anatole france— The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (vol. 1 of The Works of Anatole France), trans. Lafcadio Hearn, part 2, chapter 4, June 6, 1860, p. 198 (1924).
If I could have known Cicero, and been his friend, and talked with him in his retirement at Tusculum (beau-ti-ful Tusculum l), I could have died contented.
— Charles Dickens, Mrs. Blimlier in Dombey and Son (1848), Ch. XI, p. 105.
O you who believe, what (excuse) have you that when it is said to you, Go forth in Allah's way, you should incline heavily to earth? Are you contented with this world's life instead of the Hereafter? The provision of this world's life is but little as compared with the Hereafter.
— 38 Maulana Muhammad Ali translation
Statistically , the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise . We are alive against the stupendous odds of genetics , infinitely outnumbered by all the alternatives who might, except for luck , be in our places.
— Lewis Thomas, in Exploring the Road Less Traveled: A Study Guide for Small Groups, Simon and Schuster, 2 November 1985, p.111
...rather than frankly acknowledging the troubling truth , anathema to a democratic society, that the great writer , like the contented worker, remains an erratic and anomalous event ,...
— Alain de Botton, in The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, p.112
Heaven is for thee too high To know what passes there; be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee and thy being. Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there Live, in what state, condition, or degree, contented that thus far hath been revealed Not of earth only but of highest heav'n.
john milton— 1665 Raphael to Adam. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.8, l.172-8.
