If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren’t There More Happy People? (1)

I finished Camus’ The Outsider earlier today, but I decided against quoting from it here because most of the good stuff contains spoilers. Maybe I’ll change my mind later on, it’s a brilliant book, but if I blog it the post will contain spoilers. Now you know.

Anyway, I’ve also started reading If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren’t There More Happy People. It’s basically ‘just’ a quote-collection [...or rather: 'a compendium of wise one-liners, knockout jokes, droll asides and heartfelt statements of truth and beauty'], but it’s quite funny and there’s some good stuff hidden here. Some quotes from the book:

i. “Man is a make-believe animal – he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.” (William Hazlitt)

ii. “To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three people, two of whom are absent.” (Robert Copeland)

iii. “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” (Sydney J. Harris)

iv. “Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.” (Erica Jong)

v. “The only good thing to do with advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.” (Oscar Wilde)

vi. “There is still no cure for the common birthday.” (John Glenn)

vii. “Very few people do anything creative after the age of 35. The reason is that very few people do anything creative before the age of 35.” (Joel Hildebrand)

viii. “Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.” (Maurice Chevalier)

ix. “Inside every older woman is a young girl wondering what the hell happened.” (Cora Harvey Armstrong)

x. “Man is the only animal whose existence is a problem that he has to solve.” (Erich Fromm)

xi. “Argument is the worst sort of conversation.” (Jonathan Swift)

xii. “In most instances, all an argument proves is that two people are present.” (Tony Petito)

xiii. “No matter what side of an argument you’re on, you always find some people on your side that you wish were on the other side.” (Jascha Heifetz)

xiv. “An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.” (John Buchan)

xv. “An autobiography usually reveals nothing bad about its writer except his memory.” (Franklin P. Jones)

xvi. “Every society honours its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.” Mignon McLaughlin.

The quotes in the book cover a number of themes/subjects, ordered alphabetically. All quotes above are from themes/subjects starting with the letter ‘A’ – so yeah, there’s a lot of stuff here.

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