Quote#Happiness
To give people pleasure in the things they must perforce use, that is…
Quote byWilliam Morris · 1834–1896
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Decorative Arts (1877).
English (original)
To give people pleasure in the things they must perforce use, that is one great office of decoration; to give people pleasure in the things they must perforce make, that is the other use of it. Does not our subject look important enough now? I say that without these arts, our rest would be vacant and uninteresting, our labour mere endurance, mere wearing away of body and mind.
— William Morris
More from William Morris
O thrush, your song is passing sweet But never a song that you have sung, Is half so sweet as thrushes sang When my dear Love and I were young.
Now such an one for daughter Creon had As maketh wise men fools and young men mad.
The majesty That from man's soul looks through his eager eyes.
I know a little garden-close Set thick with lily and red rose, Where I would wander if I might From dewy dawn to dewy night, And have one with me wandering.
Wert thou more fickle than the restless sea, Still should I love thee, knowing thee for such.
From out the throng and stress of lies, From out the painful noise of sighs, One voice of comfort seems to rise: "It is the meaner part that dies."