November 18, 2008

Page 94


"It is a great mistake to confuse happiness with one particular situation, one particular person.  Since I freed myself from all that I have discovered the secret of contentment... It is simply this.  Without a huge emotional investment, one can do whatever one pleases.  One can take decisions, change one's mind, alter one's plans.  There is none of the anxiety of waiting to see if that one other person has everything she desires, if she is discontented, upset, restless, bored.  One can be as pleasant or as ruthless as one wants.  If one is prepared to do the one thing one is drilled out of doing from earliest childhood - simply please oneself - there is no reason why one should ever be unhappy again."

- Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner

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