Happiness Quote by William Arthur Ward

Ward builds a tidy escalation: mistake, stumble, laugh. The move is subtle but pointed. “To make mistakes is human” nods to the old Latin proverb, a familiar absolution that can easily become a permission slip. He sharpens it with “to stumble is commonplace,” demoting the drama of failure even further. Not only will you err; you’ll do it repeatedly, awkwardly, and in public. The consolation isn’t that you’re special for failing, but that you’re not special at all.

Then he pivots to the real subject: status. “To be able to laugh at yourself is maturity” frames self-deprecation not as a personality quirk but as a developmental milestone. The subtext is social as much as psychological: people who can’t laugh at themselves demand protection of their ego, which makes them brittle colleagues, defensive partners, and combustible leaders. Laughter, in Ward’s telling, is emotional flexibility-the ability to absorb a hit without turning it into a lawsuit, a feud, or a self-mythology.

As a mid-century American motivational writer, Ward is speaking into a culture that prized competence, respectability, and the upward climb. His line offers an alternative marker of “adult” success: not perfection, but proportion. The joke isn’t self-hatred; it’s self-knowledge with better lighting. If you can turn your stumble into a story instead of a scar, you’re not just surviving embarrassment-you’re refusing to let it run your life.