I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.

I love quotations, proverbs, aphorism, teaching stories,

Cohen's true rules and secrets of adulthood.

I especially love any single line that's able to capture a complex idea

in a single phrase or image.

A few years ago I was speaking at a big happiness conference in Sydney, Australia,

and during the course of a conversation with another panelist,

I happened to quote something that no one in the audience seemed to know.

After a comment I made, I added, you know, even a dog distinguished as being stumbled over

and being kicked. I was astonished when the audience exploded with laughter.

I had thought this was a very well-known line, almost sort of a cliche line,

but they had never heard it before.

And by the way, it is a line from the common law by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

And their reaction to this line really turned my attention to the deep truth of this observation

and the elegance of the expression of it.

When someone injures us, we know very well and we care a lot about whether that injury was

an unfortunate accident or a deliberate act.

And the distinction matters a lot to our response.

And if I'm feeling bad about something I accidentally did that hurt someone else,

it can be very comforting to think, well, it was a stumble,

but it wasn't a kick.

I'm Gretchen Rubin and I hope this makes your week a little happier.

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