The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
Meaning of the quote
Happiness in life doesn't come from avoiding your feelings and desires, but from learning to control and manage them. It's about being in charge of your emotions, not letting them control you. When you can master your passions and make good choices, that's when you'll find true happiness.
More quotes from Alfred Lord Tennyson
Believe me, than in half the creeds.
A day may sink or save a realm.
A smile abroad is often a scowl at home.
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
Words, like nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within.
The same words conceal and declare the thoughts of men.
Who is wise in love, love most, say least.
God’s finger touched him, and he slept.
There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.
Better not be at all than not be noble.
All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades for ever and for ever when I move.
In the long years liker they must grow; The man be more of woman, she of man.
Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
What rights are those that dare not resist for them?
We cannot be kind to each other here for even an hour. We whisper, and hint, and chuckle and grin at our brother’s shame; however you take it we men are a little breed.
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control; these three alone lead one to sovereign power.
By blood a king, in heart a clown.
Theirs is not to make reply: Theirs is not to reason why: Theirs is but to do and die.
Authority forgets a dying king.
Guard your roving thoughts with a jealous care, for speech is but the dialer of thoughts, and every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts.
He makes no friends who never made a foe.
A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.
I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time.
So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be.
A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier times.
The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.
My strength has the strength of ten because my heart is pure.
Love is the only gold.
I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.
There’s no glory like those who save their country.
Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die.
Men at most differ as Heaven and Earth, but women, worst and best, as Heaven and Hell.
No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not work those who work with him. Don’t knock your friends. Don’t knock your enemies. Don’t knock yourself.
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Shape your heart to front the hour, but dream not that the hours will last.
O earth, what changes hast thou seen!
I am a part of all that I have met.
Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?
Sin is too stupid to see beyond itself.
Such a one do I remember, whom to look at was love.
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
And out of darkness came the hands that reach thro’ nature, moulding men.
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.