something i am still thinking about (recalling one of my very first posts on this blog)

Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

a stanza from Friedrich Rückert

used in Mahler's Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

I am lost to the world
with which I used to waste so much time,
It has heard nothing from me for so long
that it may very well believe that I am dead!