Tag: Happiness

Sam Harris On Happiness

~ The Wisdom Archivist

50CB7793-1F2C-416D-9C7F-D769038093EBSam Harris (April 09, 1967 -)

Even in the best of circumstances, happiness is elusive. We seek pleasant sights, sounds, tastes, sensations, and moods. We satisfy our intellectual curiosity. We surround ourselves with friends and loved ones. We become connoisseurs of art, music, or food. But our pleasures are, by their very nature, fleeting. If we enjoy some great professional success, our feelings of accomplishment remain vivid and intoxicating for an hour, or perhaps a day, but then they subside. And the search goes on. The effort required to keep boredom and other unpleasantness at bay must continue, moment to moment…

Ceaseless change is an unreliable basis for lasting fulfillment… Is there a form of happiness beyond the mere repetition of pleasure and avoidance of pain?

Hannah Arendt On Pursuit Of Happiness

~ The Wisdom Archivist
Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906 – December 04, 1975)

 

Among the many surprises this country holds in store for its new citizens… there is the amazing discovery that the “pursuit of happiness,” which the Declaration of Independence asserted to be one of the inalienable human rights, has remained to this day considerably more than a meaningless phrase in the public and private life of the American Republic. To the extent that there is such a thing as the American frame of mind, it certainly has been deeply influenced, for better or worse, by this most elusive of human rights, which apparently entitles men, in the words of Howard Mumford Jones, to “the ghastly privilege of pursuing a phantom and embracing a delusion.”

🎂Happy Birthday Hannah Arendt  (October 14, 1906 – December 04, 1975) In Memoriam🌹

John Keats On Happiness

~ The Wisdom Archivist
John Keats  (October 31, 1795 – February 23, 182)
John Keats  (October 31, 1795 – February 23, 182)

I scarcely remember counting upon any Happiness – I look not for it if it be not in the present hour – nothing startles me beyond the Moment. The setting sun will always set me to rights – or if a sparrow come before my window I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel.

Nimblewill Nomad On Happiness

~ The Wisdom Archivist
Nimblewill Nomad  (1938 -) aka Meredith J. Eberhart.
Nimblewill Nomad  (1938 -) aka Meredith J. Eberhart.

I tell my friends: every year I’ve got less and less, and every year I’m a happier man. I just wonder what it’s going to be like when I don’t have anything. That’s the way we come, and that’s the way we go. I’m just preparing for that a little in advance, I guess.

Seneca On Happiness

~ The Wisdom Archivist
Seneca (c. 4 BC – AD65) 
Seneca (c. 4 BC – AD65) 

It was nature’s intention that there should be no need of great equipment for a good life: every individual can make himself happy. External goods are of trivial importance and without much influence in either direction: prosperity does not elevate the sage and adversity does not depress him. For he has always made the effort to rely as much as possible on himself and to derive all delight from himself.