Alain de Bottonīehind every sweet smile, there is a bitter sadness that no one can ever see and feel. The good life is not one immune to sadness but one in which suffering contributes to our development. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself. We never taste a perfect joy our happiest successes are mixed with sadness. They say it’s better to bury your sadness in a graveyard or garden that waits for the spring to wake from its sleep and burst into green. We’re taught to be ashamed of confusion, anger, fear and sadness, and to me they’re of equal value to happiness, excitement and inspiration. We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness. “Sadness flies away on the wings of time.” – Jean de La Fontaine The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. They may not wear it on their sleeves, but it’s there if you look deep. Alain de BottonĮvery human walks around with a certain kind of sadness. The largest part of what we call ‘personality’ is determined by how we’ve opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness. In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality. The word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.” – Percy Bysshe Shelley You have to experience sadness to know happiness, and I remind myself that not every day is going to be a good day, that’s just the way it is! Dita Von Teese Nicholas SparksĮxperiencing sadness and anger can make you feel more creative, and by being creative you can get beyond your pain or negativity. There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but I have the feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well. If you are stricken with a great sadness, you may feel as if you have been set aflame, not only because of the enormous pain but also because your sadness may spread over your life, like smoke from an enormous fire. The way sadness works is one of the strange riddles of the world. We must understand that sadness is an ocean, and sometimes we drown, while other days we are forced to swim. The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy. One must not let oneself be overwhelmed by sadness. “Sadness is also a kind of defense.” – Ivo Andrich

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