... but happiness is to joy as an electric light bulb is to the sun. Happiness always has an object, you're happy because of something, it's a condition whose existence depends on external things. Joy, on the other hand, has no object. It seizes you for no apparent reason, it's like the sun, its burning is fueled by its own heart. Susanna Tamaro
About This Quote

The Dutch philosopher Spinoza, said that “happiness is to joy as an electric light bulb is to the sun. Happiness always has an object, you’re happy because of something, it’s a condition whose existence depends on external things. Joy, on the other hand, has no object. It seizes you for no apparent reason, it’s like the sun. Its burning is fueled by its own heart.”

Source: Follow Your Heart

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Promise YourselfTo be so strong that nothingcan disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperityto every person you meet. To make all your friends feelthat there is something in them To look at the sunny side of everythingand make your optimism come... - Christian D. Larson

  2. They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. - Tom Bodett

  3. Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness. - Bertrand Russell

  4. Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world. - Orhan Pamuk

  5. I know that's what people say-- you'll get over it. I'd say it, too. But I know it's not true. Oh, youll be happy again, never fear. But you won't forget. Every time you fall in love it will be because something in the man... - Betty Smith

More Quotes By Susanna Tamaro
  1. ... but happiness is to joy as an electric light bulb is to the sun. Happiness always has an object, you're happy because of something, it's a condition whose existence depends on external things. Joy, on the other hand, has no object. It seizes you...

  2. Unshed tears leave a deposit on your heart. Eventually they form a crust around it and paralyze it, the way mineral deposits paralyze a washing machine.

Related Topics