
Is there a measure of success that does not include a measure of happiness?
From The Sum of All One's Mistakes, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
A man came to the oak this afternoon in a good coat, ate a sandwich in eleven bites, and looked at his phone the whole time without once changing his face. Switch went down the trunk for crumbs and got none, because there were none; the man ate like a job he was behind on. For years I thought the measure of a life was what it finished, and I kept a mental tally of nests built and miles flown, which is a bird's way of keeping score and not a very good one. Is there a measure of success that does not include a measure of happiness? I could not find one sitting there, though the man may have one I cannot see from forty feet up. He folded the paper bag into a square before he left, very neatly, and put it in his pocket.


He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- We resolve to do what we lack commitment to do.
- It's not how far the tree bends in the wind but whether it's uprooted.
- Better to lose your head following your heart than to lose your heart following your head.
- When you have done something well a dozen times, believe it!
- While you are waiting for the perfect moment to act, a garden of good enough moments flower and wilt.
- You don't trust your wings because you don't trust the air.



