Quote of the day by JS Mill: 'I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires...'

John Stuart Mill, in his 1873 Autobiography, wrote: 'I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.'

Mill was educated by his father James Mill and Jeremy Bentham to be a rational Utilitarian, but suffered a mental breakdown in 1826 after realizing his rational approach left him emotionally empty.

Mill argued that true happiness comes from controlling desire, not fulfilling every impulse, and his recovery was aided by the poetry of William Wordsworth.