It was impossible to resist the fascination of his genial presence." [173] There was the same joyousness of nature about Edmund Burke.

Once at a dinner at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, when the conversation turned upon the suitability of liquors for particular temperaments, Johnson said, "Claret is for boys, port for men, and brandy for heroes." "Then," said Burke, "let me have claret: I love to be a boy, and to have the careless gaiety of boyish days." And so it is, that there are old young men, and young old men--some who are as joyous and cheerful as boys in their old age, and others who are as morose and cheerless as saddened old men while still in their boyhood.
In the presence of some priggish youths, we have heard a cheerful old man declare that, apparently, there would soon be nothing but "old boys" left.

Cheerfulness, being generous and genial, joyous and hearty, is never the characteristic of prigs.

Goethe used to exclaim of goody-goody persons, "Oh! if they had but the heart to commit an absurdity!" This was when he thought they wanted heartiness and nature.

"Pretty dolls!" was his expression when speaking of them, and turning away.
The true basis of cheerfulness is love, hope, and patience.