The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens (1835–1910), was an American writer and humourist, author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He took his pen name from Mississippi river slang, having worked as a steamboat pilot. Alongside the novels he wrote travel books and sharp satire on the politics and society of his day.
About this theme: Friendship
Aristotle gave friendship two books of the Nicomachean Ethics, more than he gave justice, and distinguished three kinds: friendship for use, for pleasure, and for the friend's own sake. The first two last as long as the reason lasts; the third is rare and slow, and the only one he considered complete.
More by Mark Twain
- When in doubt, tell the truth.
- Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.
- Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
- Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
- Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
More on Friendship
- No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.— Charles Dickens
- A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.— Elbert Hubbard
- Associate with people who are likely to improve you.— Seneca
- A friend is, as it were, a second self.— Cicero
- If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.— Booker T. Washington