quote · Legacy record
The secret to happiness is elusive because it is a paradoxical truth. To gain happiness, you must first cease pursuing it. Things perceived to provide happiness are like shiny, pretty bubbles that lure us this way and that way, chasing after their glossy buoyancy. But once they are handled, they “pop”—empty—vanishing along with the hope that happiness could ever be captured. Happiness cannot be caught or won or purchased or even handled. Happiness simply forms like a rainbow in the kindest and most grateful hearts.
The secret to happiness is elusive because it is a paradoxical truth. To gain happiness, you must first cease pursuing it. Things perceived to provide happiness are like shiny, pretty bubbles that lure us this way and that way, chasing after their glossy buoyancy. But once they are handled, they “pop”—empty—vanishing along with the hope that happiness could ever be captured. Happiness cannot be caught or won or purchased or even handled. Happiness simply forms like a rainbow in the kindest and most grateful hearts.
Approximate author period: c. 2014 AD · contemporary
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Richelle E. Goodrich
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 2014 AD · contemporary
Author activity documented by the author's own dated Smile Anyway blog posts in 2014. A 21st-century author-period anchor, not the composition year of all attributed sayings. Source: https://smileanywaybook.blogspot.com/ (accessed 2026-10-08).
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 143128; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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