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About this quote

What does it mean?
Deep happiness is serious and weighty rather than lighthearted.
In plain terms
True joy is heavy and serious.
What can you take from it?
Profound joy carries gravity.

Where it applies

  • emotional experience
  • art appreciation
  • life milestones

Putting it to work

  • seek depth in happiness
  • accept seriousness in joy

Questions to consider

  • Is joy always serious?
  • How do you distinguish shallow and deep happiness?

Another view

Some deep joys are lighthearted and playful.

More from Michel de Montaigne

  1. The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.

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  2. The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage.

    Permalink to quote #121
  3. The entire lower world was created in the likeness of the higher world. All that exists in the higher world appears like an image in this lower world; yet all …

    Permalink to quote #118

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