Quote of the Day


“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”

Leo Rosten


Comments

Dan Finnegan said…
Why would he think that the two are mutually exclusive? Doing all he suggests would make one happy, nes pas?
Barbara Rogers said…
I think that's a bit Puritanical...vs those hedonistic others. I'm with Dan. See you Wed. at 6:30 in Black Mountain, all you Clay Clubbers!
John Britt said…
Well, I guess he means that you can strive to be happy as your ultimate goal without doing any of those things. (e.g. hedonist; happiness =pleasure)

The by-product of being useful, responsible, compassionate and to stand for something might result in happiness but that is not the purpose of doing them.

It's a very Jewish thing that happiness is not a goal,although it can be a by product of the way you live your life. John, you are correct!!! Rosten, who wrote the Joys of Yiddish, is very much influenced by the thought that we are to be joyous and grateful as a matter of being, not as something to which you aspire. We aspire to be good. Even at the New Year, we wish each other a good new year, not a happy new year.
John Britt said…
He has a bunch of other great quotes on the site too.