“ Hector noticed that the trucks were often painted different colours and had writing on them...

“
Hector noticed that the trucks were often painted different colours and had writing on them in big letters: ‘The Good Lord watches over us’ or ‘Long live Jesus who loves us always’ and he understood that the people here still put their trust in God, much more so than in Hector’s country where people relied on the Social Security to look after them. He wondered whether belief in God was a lesson in happiness. No, he couldn’t make that a lesson because you don’t choose whether to believe in God or not.

***

Lesson no. 11: Happiness is having a home and a garden of your own.

Lesson no. 12: It’s harder to be happy in a country run by bad people.
”

#FrancoisLelord
#HectorAndTheSearchForHappiness
#BookWorm #SerialReader #AChapterADay

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“ He asked Eduardo what made him happy in life. Eduardo reflected for a moment and said,...

“
He asked Eduardo what made him happy in life. Eduardo reflected for a moment and said, ‘Seeing my family happy, knowing that my children won’t want for anything.’ Eduardo’s children were grown up, and he hoped to send them to study in the big country that had more psychiatrists than anywhere else in the world.

Hector asked him whether it bothered him to know that other families might be very unhappy because their children took the harmful stimulant Eduardo made (because, of course, you, like Hector, have worked it out by now). This time Eduardo answered straight away. ‘If they take it, it’s because their family’s already messed up. Their parents don’t look after them properly, all they think about is making money, or getting laid. It’s normal for kids to go off the rails!’

***

Lesson no. 9: Happiness is knowing your family lacks for nothing.

Lesson no. 10: Happiness is doing a job you love.
”

#FrancoisLelord
#HectorAndTheSearchForHappiness
#BookWorm #SerialReader #AChapterADay

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“ The car left the car park and took the road into the city. Through the window, Hector again...

“
The car left the car park and took the road into the city. Through the window, Hector again saw the scorched mountains, the beggars who were watching them drive away, the sun beating on the potholed road and then, sitting in front of him, Marcel with his pump-action shotgun resting on his knees. He told himself that in this country he was perhaps going to reach a better understanding of happiness, but no doubt with quite a few lessons in unhappiness, too.
”

#FrancoisLelord
#HectorAndTheSearchForHappiness
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“ Ben: It was hard enough for me to lose Sarah. I struggled with the idea of losing you, too....

“
Ben: It was hard enough for me to lose Sarah. I struggled with the idea of losing you, too. And then when you sent those photographs, I, uh, I felt alive. I really did. I… We made it, you and I. And I had to see you. 

Alex: I loved you on that mountain. I tried to pretend that I didn’t, but I did. I came home and nothing was the same. And then I tried to reach you, and it, it was so, it was just too painful. So I had to make myself accept that maybe it wasn’t real, and it would never work, not in real life. There’s a moment for these things, and then it, it passes.

***

Ben Bass: I think you’re wrong, Alex. I think we survived because we fell in love.

Alex Martin: Up there it was just me and you. The world is bigger than that. And the heart is just a muscle. Right?

Ben Bass: What idiot said that?
”

💔😳

#EnemyAtTheGates (2017) #MovieBuff #BingeWatching

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“ I’ve been such a fool, Vassili. Man will always be man. There is no new man. We tried...

“
I’ve been such a fool, Vassili. Man will always be man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there’d be nothing to envy your neighbour. But there’s always something to envy. A smile, a friendship, something you don’t have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a Soviet one, there will always be rich and poor. Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love.
”

~ Danilov

#EnemyAtTheGates (2001) #MovieBuff #BingeWatching

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“ He remembered the women laughing on their oilcloths. Lesson no. 8: Happiness is being with...

“
He remembered the women laughing on their oilcloths.

Lesson no. 8: Happiness is being with the people you love.

When he wrote this, his heart started to beat a little faster.

***

Hector took his notebook and wrote down:

Lesson no. 8b: Unhappiness is being separated from the people you love.
”

#FrancoisLelord
#HectorAndTheSearchForHappiness
#BookWorm #SerialReader #AChapterADay

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“ HECTOR reread what he’d written in his notebook. Some of it was interesting, he felt, but...

“
HECTOR reread what he’d written in his notebook. Some of it was interesting, he felt, but even so he wasn’t very satisfied. It didn’t resemble a proper theory of happiness. (A theory is a story that grown-ups tell each other to explain how things work. People believe it is true until somebody comes up with another theory that explains things better.).

***

Hector remembered his visit to the old monk. He wrote:

Lesson no. 7: It’s a mistake to think that happiness is the goal.

He wasn’t sure whether he’d really understood this lesson, but he thought it was very interesting…

***

He remembered the women laughing on their oilcloths.

Lesson no. 8: Happiness is being with the people you love.

When he wrote this, his heart started to beat a little faster.
”

#FrancoisLelord
#HectorAndTheSearchForHappiness
#BookWorm #SerialReader #AChapterADay

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