Yesterday, I really enjoyed reading: Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide.
By Frederic Lenoir, Ph.D. Melville
House, 2015. 208 pages. A very readable introduction to many different theories and viewpoints about the nature of happiness.
{A Cloud Hands Blog repost from April 2020.}
"At the same time, as the great Scottish
philosopher David Hume notes, "The great end of all human industry, is the
attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated,
laws ordained, and societies modeled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots
and legislators." The whole of history is made up of dreams or utopias
drawn up by individuals and societies. It is because human beings have
sought a better life and done all in their power to achieve it that all the
progress of mankind has been accomplished. The same is true of our
personal lives: it's because we want to make progress, to be happier, that our
lives improve and give us ever more satisfaction. The obsession with
happiness or the quest for a too-perfect happiness can produce the opposite
result. The art of happiness consists entirely in not setting goals that
are too high, unattainable and overwhelming. It's a good idea to set more
gradual goals, to reach them step by step, to persevere without getting stressed
while being able sometimes to let go and accept life's failures and ups and
downs. Montaigne and the Taoist sages understood this clearly and
expressed it well: we need to allow our attention to act effortlessly; never to
confront a situation with the aim of forcing it; to be able to act and not to
act. In short, to hope for happiness and pursue it while being supple and
patient, without any excessive expectations, without stress, with hearts and
minds in a state of constant openness."
-
Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide.
By Frederic Lenoir, p. 106.
"I would say that happiness is the awareness of an overall and enduring
state of satisfaction in a meaningful existence founded on truth. Obviously,
the contents of this satisfaction vary from one individual to another, and
depend on their sensibility, their aspirations and the phase of their life they
are going through. Without hiding the unpredictable and fragile nature of
happiness, the aim of wisdom is to try and make it as deep and permanent as
possible, irrespective of the ups and downs of existence, external events and
the pleasant or unpleasant events of everyday life."
- Frederic Lenoir, p. 35
Hypertext Notebooks by Michael Garofalo:
Happiness: Quotes, Good Reads, Sayings
How to Live a Good Life: Advice From Wise Persons
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