“When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy.”
Oscar Wilde

What does that even mean?

What does “good” mean?
Like when someone asks me “How’s it going?” and I say “Good” (I don’t want to seem pretentious so I say “Good” instead of “Well” even though I know that “Well” is correct… is writing that in this post pretentious?). Is that what “Good” means? As in, “healthy”? Or, “in a good frame of mind”? Or, “nothing is currently wrong”? Or, “leave me alone I don’t want to tell you the truth so I’ll just say ‘good’ and keep walking”?

Some interpretations of this quote say that “good” refers to your actions. In which case, when I’m happy, I’ll behave… but just because I’m behaving, that doesn’t mean I’m happy. That makes sense. I think truly happy people generally make good moral decisions and vice versa.

HOWEVER, I’ve made plenty of good decisions when I’ve been blue, depressed even.

So. What does it really mean then??
I think what Oscar Wilde is trying to say is that it’s easier to be good, productive, compassionate, loving, supportive, empathetic people when we’re happy. But when we’re not happy, those things are much more difficult to achieve.

However, my description is not nearly as poetic.