How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I had spent my entire life not knowing the luxury of plumbing, hot and cold tap water [. . .] I could very well have gone through my entire life without knowledge of such things, and on my list of unhappinesses this would not have made an appearance. But not so anymore (5.20).
If you ever get the chance to try caviar or fly in a Learjet, maybe you'd better just pass. As Lucy finds out, getting a taste of luxuries can actually be the source of potential unhappiness if you later find yourself in reduced circumstances.
Quote #8
History is full of great events; when the great events are said and done, there will always be someone, a little person, unhappy, dissatisfied, discontented, not at home in her own skin, ready to stir up a whole new set of great events again. I was not such a person, able to put in motion a set of great events, but I understood the phenomenon all the same (5.20).
Another reason not to knock dissatisfaction: it can move people to shake things up and even make great historical events happen.
Quote #9
I was living apart from my family in a place where no one knew much about me; almost no one knew even my name, and I was free more or less to come and go as pleased me. The feeling of bliss, the feeling of happiness, the feeling of longing fulfilled that I had thought would come with this situation was nowhere to be found inside me (5.31).
Hmm. Lucy seems to suggest that freedom—freedom from attachments, freedom to do whatever you want—doesn't necessarily lead to happiness.