Greatest Happiness Quotes

Meditation is the direct means of enjoying the greatest happiness and is the only means to quench the thirst for happiness on earth. ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Derek Bok asks the right question, 'What policies would produce the greatest happiness?' and he gives great and often startling answers, combining his deep knowledge of politics with the new findings of happiness research. ~ Richard Layard, Baron Layard

If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness. ~ Joseph B. Wirthlin

God knows what is my greatest happiness, but I do not. There is no rule about what is happy and good; what suits one would not suit another. And the ways by which perfection is reached vary very much; the medicines necessary for our souls are very different from each other. Thus God leads us by strange ways; we know He wills our happiness, but we neither know what our happiness is, nor the way. We are blind; left to ourselves we should take the wrong way; we must leave it to Him. ~ John Henry Newman

Your soul is always trying to guide you in your true life direction towards your highest good and greatest happiness. ~ Catherine Carrigan

The greatest happiness for the thinking person is to have explored the explorable and to venerate in equanimity that which cannot be explored. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If the Soul sees, after death , what passes on this earth , and watches over the welfare of those it loves, then must its greatest happiness consist in seeing the current of its beneficent influences widening out from age to age, as rivulets widen into rivers, and aiding to shape the destinies of individuals, families, States, the World; and its bitterest punishment, in seeing its evil influences causing mischief and misery , and cursing and afflicting men, long after the frame it dwelt in has become dust, and when both name and memory are forgotten. ~ Albert Pike

If the third dimension and perceptions of sacredness are an important part of human nature, then the scientific community should accept religiosity as a normal and healthy aspect of human nature - an aspect that is as deep, important, and interesting as sexuality or language (which we study intensely). Here's another treasonous thought: If religious people are right in believing that religion is the source of their greatest happiness, then maybe the rest of us who are looking for happiness and meaning can learn something from them, whether or not we believe in God. That's the topic of the final chapter. ~ Jonathan Haidt

felicity. It's simple math, though. Add up the pleasurable aspects of your life, then subtract the unpleasant ones. The result is your overall happiness. The same calculations, Bentham believed, could apply to an entire nation. Every action a government took, every law it passed, should be viewed through the "greatest happiness" prism. ~ Eric Weiner

The greatest trust is confidence.
The greatest charity is compassion.
The greatest courage is action.
The greatest patience is composure.
The greatest sincerity is impartiality.
The greatest kindness is affection.
The greatest hope is expectation.
The greatest peace is contentment.
The greatest happiness is joy.
The greatest faith is certainty.
The greatest love is adoration.
The greatest virtue is integrity.

The greatest teacher is reason.
The greatest student is intelligence.
The greatest philosopher is understanding.
The greatest scientist is reason.
The greatest historian is yesturday.
The greatest prophet is eternity.
The greatest preacher is reality.
The greatest warrior is duty.
The greatest athlete is courage.
The greatest wrestler is strategy.
The greatest musician is passion.
The greatest painter is inspiration.
The greatest sculptor is history.
The greatest writer is destiny.

The greatest light is truth.
The greatest knowledge is awareness.
The greatest understanding is discernment.
The greatest wisdom is caution.
The greatest theory is facts.
The greatest philosophy is logic.
The greatest gospel is conviction.
The greatest religion is compassion.
The greatest prophecy is revelation.
The greatest world is nature.
The greatest sky is perception.
The greatest galaxy is ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

There is good reason to make our decision now to serve the Lord. On this Sunday morning, when the complications and temptations of life are somewhat removed, and when we have the time and more of an inclination to take an eternal perspective, we can more clearly evaluate what will bring us the greatest happiness in life. We should decide now, in the light of the morning, how we will act when the darkness of night and when the storms of temptation arrive. ~ Howard W. Hunter

The greatest happiness is when the eye discovers beauty where neither then mind conceived of nor the hand intended any. ~ Orhan Pamuk

The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation. ~ Jeremy Bentham

The venerable teachers, philosophers & spiritual practitioners throughout history have concluded that the greatest happiness we can experience comes from the development of an open, loving heart. ~ Allan Lokos

Fulfilling your special calling brings the greatest happiness. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

An intimate encounter with Jesus is the most transforming experience of human existence. To know him as he is, is to come home. To have his life, joy, love, and presence cannot be compared. A true knowledge of Jesus is our greatest need and our greatest happiness. ~ John Eldredge

Good character is the indispensable condition and chief determinant of happiness, itself the goal of all human doing. The end of all action, individual or collective, is the greatest happiness of the greatest number. ~ Aristotle.

Just as faith teaches us that the sovereign felicity of the other life consists in the contemplation of the divine majesty alone, so even now we can learn from experience that a similar meditation, although incomparably less perfect, allows us to enjoy the greatest happiness we are capable of feeling in this life. ~ Rene Descartes

Everything is a subject; the subject is yourself. It is within yourself that you must look and not around you ... The greatest happiness is to reveal it to others, to study oneself, to paint oneself continually in [one's] work. ~ Eugene Delacroix

Love, caring, and the spirit of kindness always bring happiness. Our greatest happiness depends on what we love, how we care, and how we share. ~ Debasish Mridha

The question that faces every man born into this world is not what should be his purpose, which he should set about to achieve, but just what to do with life? The answer, that he should order his life so that he can find the greatest happiness in it, is more a practical question, similar to that of how a man should spend his weekend, then a metaphysical proposition as to what is the mystic purpose of his life in the scheme of the universe. ~ Lin Yutang

The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters. ~ Genghis Khan

To have understood the polymorphous character of pleasure and happiness is of course to have rendered those concepts useless for utilitarian purposes; if the prospect of his or her own future pleasure or happiness cannot for reasons which I have suggested provide criteria for solving the problems of action in the case of each individual, it follows that the notion of the greatest happiness of the greatest number is a notion without any clear content at all. It is indeed a pseudo-concept available for a variety of ideological uses, but no more than that. ~ Alasdair MacIntyre

Whenever you can, act as a liberator. Freedom, dignity, wealth - these three together constitute the greatest happiness of humanity. If you bequeath all three to your people, their love for you will never die. ~ Cyrus The Great

The greatest happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or moreover, loved in spite of ourselves. ~ Victor Hugo

The enlightened conservative does not believe that the end or aim of life is competition, or success or enjoyment; or longevity; or power; or possessions. He believes, instead that the object of life is Love. He knows that the just and ordered society is that in which Love governs us, so far as Love ever can reign in this world of sorrows; and he know that the anarchical or the tyrannical society is that in which Love lies corrupt. He has learnt that Love is the source of all being, and that Hell itself is ordained by Love. He understands that Death, when we have finished the part that was assigned to us, is the reward of Love. And he apprehends the truth that the greatest happiness ever granted to a man is the privilege of being happy in the hour of his death. ~ Russell Kirk

What do you have against happiness?" said the man.

"Nothing, I guess."

"Then don't talk about things you don't know. There's no reason you shouldn't let your feelings flourish. Is it not the ultimate act to feel the greatest happiness? If pain is evil, then is not happiness good? Happiness is how we measure the worth of good things. The more pleasure we feel, the happier we are."

"Yes, but true goodness transcends what one can eat and feel," said Jeskun, remembering his teacher's words. "I don't disagree that happiness is the greatest good; I just don't agree with the objects of your pleasure. The ultimate pleasure is infinite, and all you have to offer me are things that rot. Your happiness, your pleasure, is merely temporary, and in the end it only leads to more suffering."

-Along the Many Houses of Damnation. ~ R. Janvier Del Valle

I saw what a mess a lot of people could make of their lives when they're smitten. Some of them go temporarily insane. They find a person who they think holds the key to their happiness-the only key to their happiness ... My work has always been my greatest happiness ~ Mae West

The said truth is that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong. ~ Jeremy Bentham

He was no lover in a worldly sense; the only love he knew was that of divine understanding, of taking a whole life into its depths as if they were his own. From this, the greatest pain, the greatest happiness is born: the hope that we too will one day be understood, strangers will accept our words, our lives, as if they were their own. ~ Dezso Kosztolanyi

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved
loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. ~ Victor Hugo

The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest-Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. ~ John Stuart Mill

If I start doing more things with my hands, whether that's woodworking or gardening or knitting or baking cookies, I might fall into the condition made famous by the psychologist with the impossible name: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. That condition is "flow." It means becoming completely involved in an activity not for the sake of the outcome but for the sheer joy of it. It means feeling alive when we are fully in the groove of doing something. According to Csikszentmihalyi, the path to greatest happiness lies not with mindless consuming but with challenging ourselves to experience or produce something new, becoming in the process more engaged, connected and alive. ~ Catherine Friend

Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the greatest happiness of the greatest number, or the support of any speculative idea, the State becomes for the time inevitably absolute. Liberty alone demands for its realization the limitation of the public authority, for liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition. ~ Lord Acton

Women's eyes are rapid in detecting a heart which is ill at ease with itself, and, knowing the value of sympathy, and finding their own greatest happiness not in receiving it, but in giving it, with them to be unhappy is at once to be interesting. ~ James Anthony Froude

When we consider the incidents of former days, and perceive, while reviewing the long line of causes, how the most important events of our lives originated in the most trifling circumstances; how the beginning of our greatest happiness or greatest misery is to be attributed to a delay, to an accident, to a mistake; we learn a lesson of profound humility. ~ Arthur Helps

The greatest happiness comes from the greatest activity. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class. ~ Plato

God is happy because he has the power to do as he pleases and because everything he does is right and good. Nothing can frustrate his happiness. God is so happy that his happiness spills out on us in the form of mercy. He showers goodness on us because he enjoys it. His greatest happiness is to share his happiness with us. We experience his overflowing happiness when we accept that everything we need to be happy is found in him. "The LORD's delight is in those who . . . put their hope in his unfailing love. ~ Anonymous

Happiness, ... even the smallest happiness, is like a step out of Time, and the greatest happiness is sharing in Eternity. ~ Josef Pieper

Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle - the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative. ~ Karl Popper

Man's greatest happiness comes from losing himself for the good of others. ~ David O. McKay

Stendhal knows the source of his greatest happiness and his worst misery: the reflexivity of his spiritual life. When he loves, enjoys beauty, feels free and unconstrained, he realizes not only the bliss of these feelings but, at the same time, the happiness of being aware of this happiness. But now that he ought to be completely absorbed by his happiness and feel redeemed from all his limitations and inadequacies, he is still full of problems and doubts: Is that the whole story? - he asks himself. Is that what they call love? Is it possible to love, to feel, to be delighted and yet to observe oneself so coolly and so calmly? Stendhal's answer is by no means the usual one, which assumes the existence of an insurmountable gulf between feeling and reason, passion and reflexion, love and ambition, but is based on the assumption that modern man simply feels differently, is enraptured and enthusiastic differently from a contemporary of Racine or Rousseau. For them, spontaneity and reflexivity of the emotions were incompatible, for Stendhal and his heroes they are quite inseparable; none of their passions is so strong as the desire to be constantly calling themselves to account for what is going on inside them. Compared with the older literature, this self consciousness implies just as profound a change as Stendhal's realism, and the overcoming of classical-romantic psychology is just as strictly one of the preconditions of his art as the abolition of the alternative between the ro ~ Arnold Hauser

The ultimate destiny of the human race is the greatest moral perfection, provided that it is achieved through human freedom, whereby alone man is capable of the greatest happiness. ~ Immanuel Kant

After dating for five years, my relationship with Irina Shayk has come to an end. We believed it would be best for both of us to take this step now. I wish Irina the greatest happiness. ~ Cristiano Ronaldo

It was God's fault, for taunting her as He had. For not granting her what He had granted so many other women. For dangling before her, tantalizingly, what He knew would give her the greatest happiness, then pulling it away. ~ Khaled Hosseini

I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.

I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond, that character - not wealth or power or position - is of supreme worth.

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individual's highest fulfillment, greatest happiness and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.

I believe that love is the greatest t ~ John D. Rockefeller

My greatest happiness is to be before the Blessed Sacrament, where my heart is, as it were, in Its center. ~ Margaret Mary Alacoque

I find my greatest happiness in thinking of those days in Homestead when I labored to bring a thing to perfection entirely by myself. In the evenings, I would go into the hills and look down on my work, and I knew that it was good, and my heart was elated. ~ Charles M. Schwab

You will find the greatest happiness in letting yourself be. ~ A.D. Posey

Just as we believe by faith that the greatest happiness of the next life consists simply in the contemplation of this divine majesty, likewise we experience that we derive the greatest joy of which we are capable in this life from the same contemplation, even though it is much less perfect. ~ Rene Descartes

Mannerism is always longing to have done, and has no true enjoyment in work. A genuine, really great talent, on the other hand, has its greatest happiness in execution. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Through the thick and thin of it all, it is with every harmless personal dare that I have found my greatest happiness. ~ Sherrie Krantz

If a relationship is perfectly natural there will be a complete fusion of the happiness of both of you-owing to fellow-feeling and various other laws which govern our natures, this is, quite simply, the greatest happiness that can exist. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Which of the religions of the world gives to its followers the greatest happiness? While it lasts, the religion of worshiping oneself is best. ~ C.S. Lewis

As I thought about endings and – being a lover of fairy tales – I knew immediately that the deeply rooted last line in folk stories, 'And they lived happily ever after', is the core of what we think we know about endings. We hear it always in our hindbrain because it's the last line most of us in the West have grown up with. That line stops the story at the point of greatest happiness. The wedding, the homecoming, the mystery unraveled, the villain disposed of, families reunited, babies born. If we went on in the story Cinderella, she might be whispered about in court: after all, her manners are not impeccable, she always has smudges of ash on her nose, and no one can trace her bloodline back enough generations. Perhaps she has grown fat eating all that rich food in the castle, and the prince's eye has strayed.

If we went on in The Three Little Pigs, the brother who builds with bricks will have kicked the other two lay-abouts out of his house, or hired them to run his successful company and they – angry at their lower status – plot to kill him. But, having little imagination, do it the only way they know how, by trying to boil him in the pot that still holds the memory of the wolf's demise, so of course the brick building pig finds them out.

But modern books pose a different problem. They present harder choices. It's no longer fairy tale endings we are talking about, but the other stuff, more realistic, stronger, difficult, and maybe not happy-ever-after ~ Jane Yolen

The greatest happiness we can give to a mate comes from helping him or her to more understanding of Truth. ~ Lester Levenson

The greatest happiness comes from being vitally interested in something that excites all your energies. ~ Walter Annenberg

The greatest happiness is family happiness. ~ Joyce Brothers

The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action. ~ Madame De Stael

The most fundamental law of tragedy is that the moments of greatest happiness are the hardest to attain. ~ Kedar Joshi

Words have a magical power. They can either bring the greatest happiness or the deepest despair. ~ Sigmund Freud

I was genuinely in love with Mme. de Guermantes. The greatest happiness that I could have asked of God would have been that He should overwhelm her under every imaginable calamity, and that ruined, despised, stripped of all the privileges that divided her from me, having no longer any home of her own or people who would condescend to speak to her, she should come to me for refuge. I imagined her doing so. ~ Marcel Proust

As Thomas Jefferson said, "Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of not finding one of your parents in a naked clench."That's not what he said? Well, he definitely should have ~ Laurel Ulen Curtis

Our greatest happiness comes from the experience of love & compassion. ~ Allan Lokos

According to my father, the greatest happiness in life was to marry the girl you'd spent your youth reading books with in the passionate pursuit of a shared ideal. ~ Orhan Pamuk

The greatest happiness is seeing the people you love happy. ~ Marty Rubin

Instead of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, one should demand, more modestly, the least amount of avoidable suffering for all; and further, that unavoidable suffering - such as hunger in times of an unavoidable shortage of food - should be distributed as equally as possible. ~ Karl Popper

We celebrate, we create, as citizens of Shatter. We hold a bond of unending happiness. This planet, at the edge of the galaxy, is our testament to life.
Our dragons, in the sky, came from the stars. They brought many new things to explore.
From the Blessings of the Father Dragon, a poem ~ L'Poni Baldwin

O my Charlotte, the sacred, tender remembrance! Gracious Heaven! restore to me the happy moment of our first acquaintance.
I smile at the suggestions of my heart, and obey its dictates.
their hearts do not beat in unison
I turned my face away. She should not act thus. She ought not to excite my imagination with such displays of heavenly innocence and happiness, nor awaken my heart from its slumbers, in which it dreams of the worthlessness of life! And why not? Because she knows how much I love her.
I possess so much, but my love for her absorbs it all. I possess so much, but without her I have nothing.
My dear friend, my energies are all prostrated: she can do with me what she pleases. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Each time I glanced into the rearview mirror, the black around my eyes was bigger and darker. Every once in a while Tom and I would look at each other with a silent acknowledgement that we had just worked our greatest match. When I think of it now, a quote from Georges Braque comes to mind: "Art is a wound turned to light." To my mind, that is also the beauty of pro wrestling. ~ Bret Hart

Money can't buy love, but it improves your bargaining position. ~ Christopher Marlowe

Imagination has no book value, but has imaginative value. ~ Debasish Mridha

For years to come the debris of a convulsed world will beset our steps. It will require a purpose stronger than any man and worthy of all men to calm and inspirit us. A sane society whose riches are happy children, men and women, beautiful with peace and creative activity, is not going to be ordained for us. We must make it ourselves. ~ Helen Keller

Those only are happy ... who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness,
a crisis in my mental history ~ John Stuart Mill

For a day, just for a day
We should swim in the love bay
We should celebrate peace day
For a whole day, just for a day.
We should think peace all the day
We should walk peaceful way
For a day, just for a peaceful day. ~ Debasish Mridha

It can be set down as a broad, general principle that we cannot indulge in idleness and abundance during both the first and second half of our life. Study, application, industry, enthusiasm while we are young usually enable us to enjoy life when we grow older. But unless we toil and strive and earn all we can in the first half, the second half of our life is liable to bring disappointment, discomfort, distress. The time to put forth effort is when we are most able to do it, namely, in the years of our greatest strength. The law of compensation hasn't ceased to function. ~ B.C. Forbes

Some people pursue unhappiness because happiness is too mild a sensation. ~ Coco Chanel

The greatest fear of my life turned into the most relaxation moment when I realized 'I am not alone in this. ~ Bhavik Sarkhedi

Most persons have but a very moderate capacity of happiness. Expecting ... in marriage a far greater degree of happiness than they commonly find, and knowing not that the fault is in their own scanty capability of happiness. ~ John Stuart Mill

Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence. ~ Benjamin Franklin

The biggest problem is the funerals that don't exist. People call the funeral home, they pick up the body, they mail the ashes to you, no grief, no happiness, no remembrance, no nothing. That happens more often than it doesn't in the United States. ~ Caitlin Doughty

The sadness it feels in attaining any happiness less than the infinite - all these constitute the mating call of God to the soul. ~ Fulton J. Sheen

Happiness rarely keeps company with an empty stomach ~ Helen Keller

The skills and productivity of American Workers, not to mention the taxes they pay, are the greatest economic resource our country has. To condemn large numbers of them to unemployment, to deprive the Treasury of their tax contributions and to force them to live on unemployment at public expense is the most expensive luxury any society ever chose to buy. ~ Lane Kirkland

Time and again, we have found the 'idle' truths arrived at through the process of inquiry to be of the greatest moment for practical human affairs. ~ Herbert A. Simon

I'm making some of the greatest art being made now. It'll take the art world ten years to get around to it. ~ Jeff Koons

I believe the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God. I was into habit. ~ Donald Miller

Love yourself to fill your heart with kindness.
Then love others to fill the world with happiness. ~ Debasish Mridha

When with care we have raised an imaginary treasure of happiness, we find at last that the materials of the structure are frail and perishing, and the foundation itself is laid in the sand. ~ Samuel Rogers

A beautiful object has no intrinsic quality that is good for the mind, nor an ugly object any intrinsic power to harm it. Beautiful and ugly are just projections of the mind. The ability to cause happiness or suffering is not a property of the outer object itself. For example, the sight of a particular individual can cause happiness to one person and suffering to another. It is the mind that attributes such qualities to the perceived object. ~ Dilgo Khyentse

Christian ethics demand that you should not take revenge. The paradox is, naturally, that Christians worship a God who is the greatest avenger of them all. Defy him and you burn in eternal hell, an act of revenge which is completely out of proportion to the crime ~ Jo Nesbo

Happiness is being grateful for what you have and having an attitude of gratitude instead of an attitude of envy. ~ Ben Stein

World is brighter with the happiness of children. ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Well then, "Katsa said. "Of course, we'll operate with the greatest possible secrecy, Bitterblue. And for what it's worth, we'll deny your involvement to our dying breaths, and I'll kill anyone who doesn't."
Bann began to laugh into Raffin's shoulder. Smiling, Raffin said sideways to him, "Can you imagine what it would be like to be able to say that and mean it? ~ Kristin Cashore

Truth and reread it daily: "When you seek happiness for yourself it will always elude you. When you seek happiness for others you will find it yourself." Practice making meaningful ~ Wayne W. Dyer

I feel as though I should say something profound, or enact some rite, or trade something to make it official. I want to transfer some trinket which would allow me to say that she's my girl, some kind of currency that proves to people that she likes me back. Something that would permit me to think about her all the time without feeling guilty or helpless or hopelessly far away. I guess I'm just so excited, I want to cage this thing like a tiny red bird so if can't fly away, so it stays the same, so it's still there the next time. For keeps, like a coin in your pocket. Like a peach pit from Mad Jack Lionel's tree. Like scribbled words in a locked suitcase. A bright balloon to tie to your bedpost. And you want to hug it close, hold it, but not so tight it bursts. ~ Craig Silvey

The Nurse's Song

This mighty man of whom I sing,
The greatest of them all,
Was once a teeny little thing,
Just eighteen inches tall.

I knew him as a tiny tot,
I nursed him on my knee.
I used to sit him on the pot
And wait for him to wee.

I always washed between his toes,
And cut his little nails.
I brushed his hair and wiped his nose
And weighed him on the scales.

Through happy childhood days he strayed,
As all nice children should.
I smacked him when he disobeyed,
And stopped when he was good.

It soon began to dawn on me
He wasn't very bright,
Because when he was twenty-three
He couldn't read or write.

"What shall we do?" his parents sob.
"The boy has got the vapors!
He couldn't even get a job
Delivering the papers!"

"Ah-ha," I said, "this little clot
Could be a politician."
"Nanny," he cried, "Oh Nanny, what
A super proposition!"

"Okay," I said, "let's learn and note
The art of politics.
Let's teach you how to miss the boat
And how to drop some bricks,
And how to win the people's vote
And lots of other tricks.

Let's learn to make a speech a day
Upon the T.V. screen,
In which you never never say
Exactly what you mean.
And most important, by the way,
In not to let your teeth decay,
And keep your fingers clean."

Roald Dahl

[The] United States is proud to stand with you as your strongest ally and greatest friend. I see this visit as an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between our nations, to restate America's unwavering commitment to Israel's security, and to speak directly to Israel and to your neighbors. ~ Barack Obama

Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived. ~ Jonathan Swift