The Hammock Papers: Happiness.

23 January 2011

Happiness.

True happiness is to understand our duties toward God and man;

... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence on the future;

... not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is abundantly sufficient.

The time will come when diligent research over periods will bring to light things which now lie hidden.

Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has something for every age to investigate as nature does not reveal her mysteries once and for all.
- Seneca

2 comments:

Unknown said...: beautiful photographs Rob.; January 24, 2011 at 9:43 PM
Rob Firchau said...: Thank you Jess!; January 30, 2011 at 6:03 PM

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MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL