— Anne of Green Gables (1908), Chapter 5
About this quote
हिन्दी में
मेरा अपना अनुभव यही रहा है कि अगर मन पक्का कर लिया जाए कि आनंद लेना है, तो लगभग हर चीज़ में आनंद लिया जा सकता है।
What it means
Two hedges hold this sentence up, and both get dropped when it is quoted. ‘It’s been my experience’ presents it as something tested rather than handed down, and ‘nearly always’ concedes in advance that some things will resist. What survives is narrow and defensible: a claim about enjoying what is in front of you, not about being happy, and not at all about the outcome turning out well.
The mechanism it proposes is a decision taken beforehand — making up your mind is something you do ahead of the experience, not a mood you summon inside it. That is what separates the line from the sunny temperament it is usually mistaken for. It is also unusual among quotable sentences in being checkable: a reader can run it on next week and see whether it held.
What it teaches you
Make the call before the thing begins rather than during it — on the way to the wedding you did not want to attend, at the start of the long journey, before the family visit, settle what you are going to pay attention to. Once you are inside the event the same decision costs far more, because by then you are arguing with a mood instead of setting one, and the sentence’s own ‘nearly always’ means an evening that defeats you is not evidence the method is worthless.
अर्थ और सीख
यह वाक्य स्वभाव की खुशमिज़ाजी का दावा नहीं, एक आज़माई हुई तरकीब है — और इसकी दो शर्तें अक्सर छोड़ दी जाती हैं: ‘मेरा अनुभव’ और ‘लगभग हमेशा’। दावा छोटा और ईमानदार है: नतीजा अच्छा होगा, यह नहीं; सामने जो है उसमें रस लिया जा सकता है, यह। सीख: तय अनुभव के बीच में नहीं, उसके शुरू होने से पहले कीजिए — बीच में मन बदलना कहीं ज़्यादा महँगा पड़ता है।
Where it comes from
Anne on the drive from the station, talking herself into enjoying a journey that may end with her being sent back to the asylum.
Montgomery italicised ‘firmly’ in the sentence that follows, and that qualifier is the whole method. This is not natural cheerfulness; it is a deliberate act performed by a child with very little else to work with.
