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About this quote

What does it mean?
Sharing past joys with a child and witnessing their new joy creates a deeper happiness.
In plain terms
Showing a child something you loved and seeing them love it too makes you happy.
What can you take from it?
Shared joy across generations enhances happiness.

Where it applies

  • parenting
  • mentoring
  • family bonding

Putting it to work

  • share passions with kids
  • create family traditions

Questions to consider

  • What did you love as a child you want to share?
  • How do you define happiness?

Another view

It assumes the child will find delight in what delighted the adult.

More from Joseph Priestley

  1. To me there is in happiness an element of self-forgetfulness. You lose yourself in something outside yourself when you are happy; just as when you are desperat…

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  2. We pay when old for the excesses of youth.

    Permalink to quote #18
  3. To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

    Permalink to quote #15

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