The 128 most classic philosophical essays in the world

Chapter 19 Life is Beautiful
[Russia] Chekhov

If the match ignites while it's in your pocket, you should be glad, and thank God—for your pocket isn't a powder magazine.

Life is a very unpleasant joke, but it is not very difficult to make it good.In order to achieve this, it is not enough to win the lottery and win 20 rubles, get a "White Eagle" medal, marry a beautiful woman, and be famous as a good person-these blessings are impermanent and easy Habit.In order to continue to feel happy, you need to: ([-]) be good at satisfying the status quo; ([-]) be happy to feel: "Things could have been worse." This is not difficult.If the match ignites while it's in your pocket, you should be glad, and thank God—for your pocket isn't a powder magazine.

If poor relatives come to your villa, don't turn pale, but exclaim happily, "That's good, luckily it's not the police!" If you get a thorn in your finger, you should be happy : "It's good, thanks to the fact that the thorn is not stuck in the eye!" If your wife or aunt practices the piano, don't lose your temper, but be grateful for this blessing-you are listening to music, not listening to the wolf. Howl or meow.

You should be happy because you're not a long-distance carriage horse, Kirk's "little spot," a trichinella, a pig, a donkey, a gypsy bear, a bedbug... Be happy because right now you You didn't sit in the dock, didn't see your creditors in front of you, and didn't talk to the editor-in-chief Turba about the payment of the manuscript.If you don't live in a very remote place, don't you feel happy when you think that fate has not sent you to a remote place?

If you have a toothache, you should be glad--thankfully it's not a mouthful of toothaches.

You should be glad you don't have to read The Citizen, sit in a garbage truck, marry three people at once...  

If you're sent to the police station, you'll be jumping for joy, because it didn't send you to the fire of hell.

If you've been hit with a birch stick, you should be jumping up and down, and crying, "It's my luck that I'm not hit with a barbed stick!"

If your wife has a change of heart about you, be happy, because she betrayed you, not the country.

And so on... My friend, do as I advise, and your life will be full of joy.

Heart mark notes
In life, many people always attribute the cause of being too tired and annoying to the outside world, but they don't understand the truth that "the color of the mood determines the color of the world".If you treat the same thing and the same predicament with an optimistic attitude, you will feel much more relaxed; if you treat it with a pessimistic attitude, you will feel overwhelmed.

Schopenhauer said: "A pessimistic person regards all happiness as unhappiness, just like fine wine will become bitter in the mouth full of bile. The happiness and distress of life do not lie in whether the things that come are themselves bitter or happy. , but to see how we face these things."

Indeed, it is the weakness of human beings not to be good at forgetting pain, not giving up anxiety, and not knowing how to enjoy life.Life is short, let us change our attitude in time and use an optimistic attitude to understand life.

(End of this chapter)