January Classic of the Month: Recipe for a Happy Life

In the spirit of new resolutions and making ourselves better in the new year, Cosimo is thrilled to offer Recipe for a Happy Life by Margaret of Navarre as our Classic of the Month for January.

In the year 1500, Queen Margaret of Navarre wrote her "recipe for a happy life," which includes ingredients such as patience, pastimes, repose and peace, pleasant memory and hope, and love's magic drops. Picking up these themes, Marie West King has selected passages from literature that expand on Queen Margaret's suggestions. Represented are Ralph Waldo Emerson ("A day for toil, an hour for sport"), George Washington ("Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called Conscience"), Plato ("Self conquest is the greatest of victories"), and William Shakespeare ("Love comforteth, like sunshine after rain").

Readers will find that this simple recipe still stands the test of time, even now in 2017. We hope all of you live a happier life in the new year!