happiness in times of change

thinkers, poets, philosophers

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1

werner heisenberg

Quote
“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”
Inner voice
From talks with colleagues: “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting.”
Poetry
And if in the infinite the same
flows as it does here — I accept life.
Let what is to come and all I have lived
be joined into one.
2

niels bohr

Quote
“Opposites are not contradictions but complements.”
Inner voice
From a letter to a friend: “I believe a horseshoe brings luck even if I don’t believe in it.”
Poetry
There are two kinds of truth: one —
banal and dull,
the other — so deep
that even its opposite holds true.
3

albert einstein

Quote
“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
Inner voice
From a diary note: “I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.”
Poetry
Imagination matters more than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited.
Imagination embraces the world.
4

wolfgang pauli

Quote
“Outer discoveries are impossible without inner work.”
Inner voice
From a letter to Carl Jung: “I often feel like a snake biting its own tail. Physics and psyche are two aspects of one reality.”
Poetry
Ouroboros, the snake that swallows its tail —
the circle is closed, beginnings have no end.
So the mind, knowing itself, does not vanish:
it sees in the abyss the light it has itself lit.
5

kahlil gibran

Quote
“Your daily life is your temple and your religion.”
Inner voice
From “Sand and Foam”: “Yesterday is but a memory, tomorrow — a dream; today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”
Poetry
I am forever walking upon these shores,
betwixt the sand and the foam.
The high tide will erase my foot-prints,
and the wind will blow away the foam.
But the sea and the shore will remain forever.
6

leo tolstoy

Quote
“Do you want peace of mind? Go and serve people — but expect from them neither gratitude nor justice.”
Inner voice
From his diary: “Happiness is the satisfaction of needs — the needs of the body and the needs of the soul. If the body’s needs are met and the soul’s are not, a man is unhappy.”
Poetry
One of the most astonishing delusions:
that happiness lies in doing nothing.
True happiness is in action, in work.
7

miguel de cervantes

Quote
“Freedom is one of the most precious gifts heaven ever bestowed upon men.”
Inner voice
In the spirit of “Don Quixote”: “Nothing costs us so little, nor is valued so dearly, as courtesy.”
Poetry
The days go by and do not return,
and tomorrow is only the fruit of a dream;
the life that was once given us
passes into eternity like flowers.
8

leonardo da vinci

Quote
“In nature everything is wisely thought out and arranged; everyone should mind their own work, and in this wisdom lies the highest justice of life.”
Inner voice
From his notebooks: “Iron rusts from disuse; standing water putrefies and freezes in the cold; so too the human mind withers when it finds no use.”
Poetry
The drop hollows the stone not by force but by falling often.
So thought pierces inert matter.
9

michelangelo buonarroti

Quote
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
Inner voice
From a letter: “Art is jealous; it demands the whole man. And the more you give it, the more it demands.”
Poetry
Is it not true — the examples have no end —
how an image, embodied in stone,
captivates the eye, sealed forever
in the work of its maker, the chisel?
10

pico della mirandola

Quote
“I have set thee at the centre of the world… I made thee neither heavenly nor earthly… so that thou, a free and glorious craftsman, mightest shape thyself as thou wilt.”
Inner voice
From the “Oration on the Dignity of Man”: “Thou art constrained by no limits; it is given to thee to define thine own image by thine own decision.”
Poetry
I am no angel and no beast — I am human,
free to fall and free to soar.
The smith of my own fate and my own heaven.
11

marina tsvetaeva

Quote
“Do not love, rich one, the poor one; do not love, learned one, the foolish one… In a word — do not love anything that is not you.”
Inner voice
From her diaries: “I do not want to have a point of view. I want to have sight.”
Poetry
For my poems, like precious wines,
their turn will come.
…
Scattered in the dust of bookshops
(where no one took them, no one takes),
for my poems, like precious wines,
their turn will come.
12

osip mandelstam

Quote
“I have forgotten the word I wished to say. The blind swallow returns to the hall of shadows on clipped wings, to play with the transparent ones.”
Inner voice
From “The Noise of Time”: “I do not know when this little song began… is it not the one that rustles in every memory?”
Poetry
For the quiet joy of breathing and living —
whom, tell me, am I to thank?
…
There is no need to speak of anything,
nothing needs to be taught,
and how sad and how good it is —
the dark animal soul.

In this honesty there is no gloom but a quiet strength: a light that carries the path onward.

13

alexander blok

Quote
“And eternal battle! Rest we only dream of, through blood and dust…”
Inner voice
From his notebooks: “Happiness is to be simple as nature and complex as music.”
Poetry
Oh, I want to live madly:
to make eternal all that exists,
to give a human face to the impersonal,
to embody what never came to be!
14

nikolai berdyaev

Quote
“Freedom is not a right but a duty. Not what is demanded, but what is laid upon us.”
Inner voice
From “Self-Knowledge”: “Man is the being who overcomes himself and the world.”
Poetry
Freedom is not doing whatever you wish,
but being master of your own desires.
15

evgeny schwartz

Quote
“Glory to the brave who dare to love, knowing that all of it will end.”
Inner voice
From his diaries: “A miracle is not what breaks the laws of nature, but what confirms them — in the most unexpected way.”
Poetry
How many wondrous discoveries
are prepared for us by the spirit of enlightenment,
and experience, child of hard-won errors,
and genius, friend of paradoxes.
16

astrid lindgren

Quote
“A childhood without books is like a childhood without sun. But adulthood without the inner child is twilight.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “I write to amuse myself, and I hope that perhaps it will amuse other children too.”
Poetry
I have never tried that before —
so I am sure I can do it.
17

george lucas

Quote
“Dreams are not what we see in our sleep. They are what keeps us awake.”
Inner voice
From a speech: “We all dream, but not all of us make our dreams real. I have always believed technology is just a tool; stories and emotions are what truly matter.”
Poetry
May the Force be with you.
18

andrei tarkovsky

Quote
“Man seeks not outer events but a soul that will respond.”
Inner voice
From his diaries: “Every person must learn to live with himself. That is the hardest thing.”
Poetry
And this I dreamed, and this I dream,
and this, some day, I will dream again…
19

federico fellini

Quote
“The only realist is the visionary. Reality is too complex to be plausible.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “I do not trust those who are too sure of their ideas. Doubt is the engine of creation.”
Poetry
Life is a magic to be accepted
with all its illusions.
20

charlie chaplin

Quote
“In the end, everything will be all right. And if it is not all right yet, it is not yet the end.”
Inner voice
From his autobiography: “I learned to laugh at myself. It helped me survive the hardest moments.”
Poetry
His wordless song “Smile” says the essential:
smile through the aching heart — the clouds will pass.
(We paraphrase: the lyrics are protected.)
21

audrey hepburn

Quote
“The beauty of a woman is in the care she gives with love, and in the passion she does not hide.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears… It is in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart — the place where love lives.”
Poetry
For beautiful eyes, look for the good in people;
for beautiful lips, speak kind words.
22

ingmar bergman

Quote
“I search for God in silence. But there is only the echo of my own voice. And yet that echo is a beginning.”
Inner voice
From “Laterna Magica”: “Film is a dream I share. And in that dream I look for answers.”
Poetry
Morning. Light. Stillness. And suddenly — the sound of rain.
It is the Lord speaking to us in a whisper.
23

antoine de saint-exupéry

Quote
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Inner voice
From “Wind, Sand and Stars”: “To be a man is to feel that you are responsible for everything.”
Poetry
You are forever responsible
for what you have tamed.
24

mikhail bulgakov

Quote
“He who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.”
Inner voice
From “The Master and Margarita”: “Love leaped out at us the way a murderer leaps out in an alley, and struck us both at once.”
Poetry
Manuscripts don’t burn.
25

the strugatsky brothers (post 1)

Quote
“Happiness for everybody, free of charge, and let no one go away offended!”
Inner voice
From an interview: “We are not prophets; we simply try to understand what will happen if…”
Poetry
Happiness is understanding
that you are doing something that matters.
26

umberto eco

Quote
“The real hero is always a hero by mistake. He dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.”
Inner voice
From an essay: “I have always believed a book should be intelligent — but should not show it.”
Poetry
Happiness is being able to do what you love
without thinking about time.
27

gabriel garcía márquez

Quote
“Do not let yourself die without knowing this wonder — to sleep beside the one you love.”
Inner voice
From a speech: “Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers, and how one remembers it.”
Poetry
There is no medicine that cures
what love cannot cure.
28

kurt vonnegut

Quote
“A strange thing: we all know we will die, yet no one believes it. Otherwise we would live differently.”
Inner voice
From “Slaughterhouse-Five”: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
Poetry
If this is not good,
then this is not yet the end.
29

akira kurosawa

Quote
“In a mad world, only the mad see the clear path.”
Inner voice
From his autobiography: “Man is a genius when he is dreaming.”
Poetry
The old pond.
A frog leaps in.
The sound of water.
30

hayao miyazaki

Quote
“To create is to live twice.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “My films are my dreams. If you dream them too, I do not live in vain.”
Poetry
The road you are walking
is the home you are looking for.
31

robin williams

Quote
“I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make others happy. Because they know what it is like to feel worthless.”
Inner voice
From a talk: “I think comedy is a way of dealing with tragedy.”
Poetry
Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys.
Make your lives extraordinary.
32

andrzej wajda

Quote
“Cinema is the art of asking questions, not of giving answers.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “I always ask questions I do not know the answers to. That is what art is.”
Poetry
Ashes and diamond — two faces of one fate.
Which do you choose?
33

tom stoppard

Quote
“Happiness is the absence of the pursuit of happiness.”
Inner voice
From “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”: “We are only actors in someone else’s play — yet sometimes we get to play our own part.”
Poetry
Death is not the end.
It is only the curtain.

In this honesty there is no gloom but a quiet strength: a light that carries the path onward.

34

stanisław lem

Quote
“Nothing exists that is only outside or only inside.”
Inner voice
From “Solaris”: “We seek no one but ourselves. We fly to the stars and in the end find only our own reflection.”
Poetry
The ocean thinks. But its thinking is unlike ours.
It is like music that cannot be written down in notes.
35

peter weir (and “dead poets society”)

Quote
“Carpe diem. Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.”
Inner voice
From an interview with Peter Weir: “I love films that make the viewer feel, not merely think.”
Poetry
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack,
the prize we sought is won…
36

frank capra

Quote
“Every person matters in their own way. Without them the world would be different.”
Inner voice
From his memoirs: “I wanted my films to inspire people to believe in the good.”
Poetry
Every time a bell rings,
an angel gets his wings.
37

walt disney

Quote
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Inner voice
From a talk: “I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.”
Poetry
All our dreams can come true,
if we have the courage to pursue them.
38

jim henson

Quote
“A frog is just a frog. But when it sings, it becomes Kermit. And then magic happens.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “The Muppets are not just puppets — they are part of me. I believe inside everyone lives a child who wants to play.”
Poetry
Life is like a puppet show:
what matters is not who holds the strings,
but who sings.
39

meryl streep

Quote
“I no longer try to be perfect. I just want to be real.”
Inner voice
From a conversation: “The greatest reward for an actor is when the audience sees themselves in your characters.”
Poetry
Be yourself.
All the other parts are already taken.
40

steven spielberg

Quote
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up.”
Inner voice
From a speech: “I still make films because I am still the child who believes in miracles.”
Poetry
I am here.
And I am staying.
41

quentin tarantino

Quote
“I steal from every movie I have ever seen. But out of all the stolen pieces comes something new.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “I make the films I would want to watch myself. It is the only honest approach.”
Poetry
Style is a choice.
And I choose a life full of cinema.
42

wong kar-wai

Quote
“Time passes. But some moments remain forever.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “I love filming loneliness. In every film of mine the characters are looking for a connection.”
Poetry
You cannot bring time back.
But sometimes time brings you back.
43

marcel proust

Quote
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
Inner voice
From an essay: “The true journey is not the search for new scenery, but the gaining of new eyes.”
Poetry
The taste of the madeleine dipped in tea
brought back all of childhood,
as if it stood beside me.
44

oscar wilde

Quote
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Inner voice
From “De Profundis”: “Life is an art, not a science — it must be lived, not studied.”
Poetry
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word…
45

the strugatsky brothers (post 2)

Quote
“It is hard to be a god — but it is even harder to remain human.”
Inner voice
From “The Ugly Swans”: “Happiness is being understood. Without that, any miracle is just a trick.”
Poetry
Happiness for everyone —
possible, but not all at once.
46

j. r. r. tolkien

Quote
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
Inner voice
From a letter: “I believe myths and fairy-stories are not lies, but a way of conveying truths that otherwise cannot be told.”
Poetry
Not everything that shines is gold,
and not every wanderer has lost his home.
A deep root does not fear the storm,
and the sage is not the one grown grey of mind.
(a paraphrase of the meaning)
47

roger zelazny

Quote
“What is Amber? It is the shadows cast by our choices.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “Each of us is the centre of the universe — but only in our own eyes. Reality is merely the shadow of our choice.”
Poetry
I am I. I am my decisions.
And there is no truth but the one I have made.
48

j. d. salinger

Quote
“You know, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye at dusk… And I am standing on the edge of some crazy cliff — my job is to catch them before they fall.”
Inner voice
From “Franny and Zooey”: “I am tired of people who want to be somebody instead of simply being.”
Poetry
She said I looked like a man
trying to light a match in the rain.
49

ray bradbury

Quote
“Dandelion wine — summer caught and bottled.”
Inner voice
From an essay: “You must stay in love with something at all times. Being in love gives you energy.”
Poetry
The June morning comes slowly,
like waking from a dream,
and every breath of air is a sip of summer.
50

isaac asimov

Quote
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. And happiness is the first reward of reason.”
Inner voice
From an interview: “Happiness is using your mind to the full. I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.”
Poetry
In life, unlike chess,
the game continues after checkmate.
51· B1

plotinus — the way to oneself

Quote
“Return into yourself and look. If you do not yet see yourself beautiful, do as the sculptor does: cut away the excess, polish, until the light of virtue shines out.”
A life story
Young Plotinus, at about twenty-seven, was looking for a teacher. He went from one school of philosophy to another — and in Alexandria at last found Ammonius Saccas. “This is the man I was looking for,” he told a friend. Not an instant illumination, but a long turning toward what is already within. Happiness, for Plotinus, is not a “mood” but the showing-forth of what a person already carries: not adding what is foreign, but removing what is excess.
The essence
Twenty-seven years — not a drama but a way.
Like the sculptor: the light is already in the stone —
what remains is to cut away the excess.
52· B2

five paths to meaning

Quote
“I am not looking for a way to kill time — I am looking for a way to enliven the mind.”
A life story
Different ages answered differently — yet agreed on one thing: meaning is sought, it is not handed out by subscription. Through the book — Seneca read every day. Through conversation — Bohr and Heisenberg thought aloud on their walks, and understanding was born of it. Through work — Tagore built a school in a garden. Through beauty — Plotinus learned from sculpture. Through service — joy through a work larger than oneself.
The essence
Book. Conversation. Work. Beauty. Service —
five doors into a single question:
where is my path right now?
53· B3

niels bohr — the horseshoe and complementarity

Quote
“Seeking harmony in life, one must never forget: in the drama of existence we are at once actors and spectators.”
A life story
In Bohr’s house in Copenhagen a horseshoe hung over the door. A guest asked: “Do you really believe it brings luck?” Bohr replied: “They say it brings luck even if you don’t believe.” The physicist who discovered complementarity — opposites completing, not excluding, one another. His recipe: take part in life fully — and keep distance enough to see the whole.
The essence
A horseshoe over the door —
not superstition but a smile:
opposites complement, they do not quarrel.
54· B4

which books to read

Quote
“To read is to live another’s life without leaving your own.”
A life story
Five texts the philosophers themselves kept rereading: Plotinus, “Enneads” I.6, “On Beauty”. Epictetus, “Discourses”. Seneca, letters to Lucilius. The “Bhagavad Gita”, chapters II and VI. Rabindranath Tagore, “The Gardener”. Read slowly. One line — then a pause.
The essence
Not a checklist —
five companions in the quiet:
a book, tea, time.
55· B5

werner heisenberg — uncertainty as openness

Quote
“Every new experience may open new paths, but it can never give the final answer.”
A life story
The year 1927. Heisenberg formulates the uncertainty principle — and with it a new way of seeing: not everything can be fixed once and for all. This is not anxiety but openness. His recipe echoes ancient wisdom: do not cling to the illusion of total control. The correspondence with Bohr — a conversation not for victory, but for clarity.
The essence
Not everything can be measured —
and in that lies no threat but a door:
the world is wider than the formula.
56· B6

rabindranath tagore — the nobel and shantiniketan

Quote
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted, and behold, service was joy.
A life story
1913 — the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore is the first non-European laureate in that category. But his real joy was Shantiniketan — the “Abode of Peace”, a school under the open sky where children learned among gardens and songs. Happiness, for Tagore, is consonance with the world: when your work answers something deeper than the habit of “must”.
The essence
The medal is an outer light.
The school garden — an inner one:
service became joy.
57· B7

marina tsvetaeva + vermeer — word and presence

Quote
“Poetry is not a profession and not a hobby — it is breathing.”
A life story
The year 1926. Tsvetaeva corresponds with Rilke: the word is not an ornament but a way of being in the world. Vermeer painted something else — yet in the same language of stillness: light, presence in the moment. Poetry and painting: two ways of saying “here and now is already enough”. Lightly, without tragedy — simply the depth of the moment.
The essence
A pearl of light —
and a line born not for the stage,
but for breathing.
next

the book of happiness

Twenty-two words — simplicity, harmony, freedom, patience, joy. For each one: a reflection, voices, a practice and a small quest. Not rules, but a conversation with yourself.

open the book → (in Russian)