# Quote — Teju Cole, Open City

> I became aware of just how fleeting the sense of happiness was, and how flimsy its basis: a warm restaurant after having come in from the rain, the smell of food and wine, interesting conversation, daylight falling weakly on the polished cherrywood of the tables. It took so little to move the mood from one level to another, as one might push pieces on a chessboard. Even to be aware of this, in the midst of a happy moment, was to push one of those pieces, and to become slightly less happy.

- Author: [Teju Cole](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole.md)
- Book: [Open City](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city.md)
- Page: 141
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Teju_Cole#Open_City_(2011)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city/i-became-aware

## More from this book

> Action led to action, free of any moorings, and the way to be someone, the way to catch the attention of the young and recruit them to one's cause, was to be enraged. It seemed as if the only way this lure of violence could be avoided was by having no causes, by being magnificently isolated from all loyalties. But was that not an ethical lapse graver than rage itself?

p. 107 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city/action-led-to-action.md)

> Blacks, ‘we blacks’ had known rougher ports of entry [...] This was the acknowledgement he wanted, in his brusque fashion, from every ‘brother’ he met.

p. 55 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city/blacks-we-blacks.md)

> There’s strong leftist support for Palestinian causes in the United States. Many of my friends in New York, for example, think that Israel is doing terrible things in the Occupied Territories.

p. 118 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city/theres-strong-leftist.md)