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About this quote

What does it mean?
No one has an inherent right to happiness or good fortune.
In plain terms
You are not owed happiness by the world.
What can you take from it?
Happiness must be earned or accepted, not demanded.

Where it applies

  • personal struggle
  • philosophical reflection
  • self-coaching

Putting it to work

  • practice gratitude
  • lower entitlement
  • accept reality

Questions to consider

  • Do you expect life to be fair?
  • How do you find happiness?

Another view

Some people are denied happiness through no fault of their own.

More from Matthew Arnold

  1. The sophist sneers: Fool, take Thy pleasure, right or wrong! The pious wail: Forsake A world these sophists throng! Be neither saint nor sophist-led, but be a …

    Permalink to quote #61
  2. We do not what we ought, What we ought not, we do, And lean upon the thought That chance will bring us through.

    Permalink to quote #63
  3. Hither and thither spins The wind-borne mirroring soul, A thousand glimpses wins, And never sees a whole.

    Permalink to quote #60

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