“Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.”(George Orwell)
I don’t think I am young, but I might as well hope I am very foolish.
George Orwell was not one of life’s little rays of sunshine 
Let’s be young and foolish forever. I love every minute of life. I cannot wait for the sun to rise, and for my wife to rise so we can enjoy our breakfast together, and then get on with the day.
“So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, spring is still spring.”(George Orwell)
and winter is still winter: Yipee, there’s snow in Sussex! What a delight for a very foolish person.
It was snowing heavily when I was driving back home after work this evening. What a delight for a very foolish person.
“The humanist attitude is that the struggle must continue and that death is the price of life.”(George Orwell)
To paraphrase Helen: The humanists aren’t exactly rays of sunshine either, are they?
“On balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.”
The days will soon be getting longer and, in the meantime, the very foolish may want to seek refuge in Bill Bryson quotes, as a little bit of light relief.
If everybody needs “a little sunshine” to make all the difference in the world, it means he or she is not always exposed to gentle sunshine.
I’m no good at philosophy. Help! Constant exposure to gentle sunshine may make a deluge seem attractive? While I am occupied with babysitting, I shall no doubt think about how to answer more elegantly. A result is not guaranteed, however.
“You’re my little ray of sunshine breaking through the cloudy day”?
One aims to please! Seriously, if I were meant with the little ray of sunshine, thank you and I hope your cloudy days are few and far between. Otherwise, I’ll let the philosophers among us ponder and answer it. Granny duties are calling.
I tried to use the expression “Little Ray of Sunshine” that Helen had used, to describe what Orwell wanted to say.
I shall have to brush up on Orwell. Not only LingQ is addictive, following threads on the forum is equally so. I’m making myself late, if I don’t switch off the computer NOW.
This phrase, one of my favorites is so true…
“Youth is wasted on the young” – George Bernard Shaw
Who waste youth on the young? The young?
GBS was perhaps implying that young people are not aware what a wonderful time youth is, of how precious youth is, at least to the older person. (It seems a waste, therefore, for younger people to have youth…)
It’s saying that when your young, you don’t appreciate all that comes with being young. You don’t have a lot of responsibility, you have the freedom to do a lot of things. You don’t have a family to raise, mortgages to pay, social norms to follow. By the time you realize what you had, it’s gone. All that potential is “wasted” on a person who doesn’t have the wisdom (because their young) to appreciate all the opportunities they had at the time. I’m awful at explaining things but I think you know what it means now? I’m sure you have an equivalent phrase in your native language.