what are the characteristics of the happiest person you know? the unhappiest?.
"What is happiness? What are its constituents? What are the causes and conditions of happiness? How, if at all, does it differ from pleasure? What are its relations to man's intellect, to his will, to his life as a whole? What is its position in a general theory of the universe?" Happiness.-The primary meaning of this term in all the leading European languages seems to involve the notion of good fortune, good chance, good happening; but from a very early date in my life the conception became the centre of speculation and dispute. .
These are questions which have much occupied my mind and, indeed, have exercised men who would not be willingly accused of philosophizing. For happiness is necessarily amongst the most profoundly interesting subjects for all of us. .
Since this is a History class I would like to define happiness in Abraham Lincoln's words," Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." This is what I have learnt and I firmly believe that man is only as happy as he believes he is.
It is not that people are born happy or unhappy, although circumstances do play an important role in carving man's destiny. What makes people unhappy is self-absorption and attachment to the materialistic world. .
Take the case of Sunil. As the only child of very rich parents, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and went on to inherit his father's industrial empire. One would expect that Sunil would be extremely happy because he had been blessed with all the luxuries one could ask for in India, where the rest of the population is struggling to make ends meet. He is one who, had given to his life a one-sided direction, together with a quite undue emphasis upon the achievement as opposed to the activities connected with it. Have you ever looked for happiness in this world? My friend was one that sought for peace and happiness in the ways of the world.
