Top voices on happiness: Viktor Frankl, Epicurus, Robert Waldinger, Bertrand Russell and 53 others.
Hardly anyone here says a good life means feeling good; they part on what it means instead.
Our reading of what a group of claims have in common, one level above a korrent: a korrent is our reading of what somebody said, a view is our reading of what several korrents share. The claims are printed under it, so the sentence can be checked against them.
Nobody is filed under a view — claims are. A person is named here because a dated claim of theirs sits under it, and somebody whose claims sit under two views appears under both.
Friedrich NietzscheEyal LevinSonja LyubomirskyViktor FranklAlbert EinsteinJohn Stuart Mill
Sonja LyubomirskyBertrand RussellJohn Stuart MillArthur SchopenhauerHarriet MartineauAugustine of HippoAristotleEpicurus
Mark MansonElon MuskYuval Noah HarariSonja LyubomirskyViktor FranklSigmund Freud
Rob HendersonKevin KellyKent C. DoddsDario AmodeiArthur C. BrooksRobert WaldingerLaurie SantosViktor FranklBertrand RussellSigmund FreudThiruvalluvarAristotleEpicurus
Robert WaldingerLaurie SantosViktor FranklBertrand RussellJohn Stuart Mill
Ryan HolidayMasud HusainJL CollinsMichael LewisMorgan HouselDaniel KahnemanLaurie SantosArthur C. BrooksBertrand RussellSigmund FreudHenry David ThoreauSocrates
Kelsey HightowerDerek SiversHenry David ThoreauMarcus AureliusSenecaLaoziEpicurus
Nick MaggiulliKelsey HightowerPaul MillerdArthur C. BrooksMorgan Housel
David Heinemeier HanssonNick CavePieter LevelsL. M. SacasasRobert WaldingerViktor FranklBertrand RussellSigmund Freud
Mortimer AdlerImmanuel KantBaruch SpinozaMarcus AureliusAristotleSocratesEpicurus
Sasha ChapinDavid Heinemeier HanssonBertrand RussellArthur SchopenhauerMarcus AureliusEpictetusSenecaEpicurus
A viewour reading
Their wordsIf a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself.
Their wordsJust like dieters shouldn’t weigh themselves several times a day, happiness seekers shouldn’t evaluate their happiness too frequently.
Their wordsThus, contrary to the psychoanalytic view, the person, as understood by the existential analysis I have attempted to outline, is not drive-determined but meaning-oriented; from the point of view of existential analysis, the person does not strive for pleasure but for value.
Their wordsit did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly.
Their wordsIt is one of the basic tenets of logotherapy that man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.
Their wordsBut happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.
Their wordsAs to the causation of the feeling of meaninglessness, one may say, albeit in an oversimplifying vein, that people have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning.
Their wordsMan can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.
Their wordsI never, indeed, wavered in the conviction that happiness is the test of all rules of conduct, and the end of life. But I now thought that this end was only to be attained by not making it the direct end.
Their wordsAsk yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so. The only chance is to treat, not happiness, but some end external to it, as the purpose of life.
A viewour reading
Their wordsDo not fall prey to seeking pure happiness. Instead, seek lifelong progress toward happierness.
Their wordsAn unhealthy preoccupation with happiness by the few, however, doesn’t mean that its pursuit should be renounced by the many.
Their wordsFortunately, growing experimental research by my laboratory and others also reveals that becoming significantly happier is achievable.
Their wordsIt is in the belief that many people who are unhappy could become happy by well-directed effort that I have written this book.
Their wordsHappiness is not, except in very rare cases, something that drops into the mouth, like a ripe fruit, by the mere operation of fortunate circumstances.
A viewour reading
Their wordsHappiness evidently not only feels good, it precedes, relates to, and causes success in life.
Their wordsA happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.
Their wordsThe essentials of human happiness are simple, so simple that sophisticated people cannot bring themselves to admit what it is they really lack.
Their wordsThe happiness that requires intoxication of no matter what sort is a spurious and unsatisfying kind. The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties, and the fullest realization of the world in which we live.
Their wordsThe secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
Their wordsIt is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
Their wordsThe main constituents of a satisfied life appear to be two, either of which by itself is often found sufficient for the purpose: tranquillity, and excitement.
Their wordsNext to selfishness, the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory, is want of mental cultivation.
Filed here becauseThe opposite answer to 'happiness cannot be pursued': here it is the thing to pursue.
Their wordsCheerfulness is a direct and immediate gain,—the very coin, as it were, of happiness, and not, like all else, merely a cheque upon the bank; for it alone makes us immediately happy in the present moment, and that is the highest blessing for beings like us, whose existence is but an infinitesimal moment between two eternities. To secure and promote this feeling of cheerfulness should be the supreme aim of all our endeavors after happiness.
Their wordsThe two considerations just mentioned must be subordinated to the grand one,—the only general one,—of the relative amount of human happiness. Every element of social life derives its importance from this great consideration.
Their wordsThey will as little hesitate to say "in the truth," as to say "that they desire to be happy," for a happy life is joy in the truth: for this is a joying in Thee, Who art the Truth, O God my light, health of my countenance, my God.
Their wordsHappiness, therefore, does not lie in amusement; it would, indeed, be strange if the end were amusement, and one were to take trouble and suffer hardship all one's life in order to amuse oneself.
Their wordsHappiness, therefore, must be some form of contemplation.
Their wordsBy pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul.
A viewour reading
Their wordsFirst, our minds have bad intuitions about what we can do to improve our mood.
Their wordsLife as we find it is too hard for us; it entails too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks. We cannot do without palliative remedies.
Their wordsIt simply cannot be put into execution, the whole constitution of things runs counter to it; one might say the intention that man should be ‘happy’ is not included in the scheme of ‘Creation’.
Their wordsOur possibilities of happiness are thus limited from the start by our very constitution. It is much less difficult to be unhappy.
Their wordsThe mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
A viewour reading
Their wordsThe pretty truth is that you have a purpose on this planet. The gorgeous truth is that you get to define that purpose.
Their wordswhich is that we don’t know the meaning of life, but the more we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness, digital and biological, the more we’re able to understand what questions to ask about the answer that is the universe. So I have a philosophy of curiosity.
Their wordsTo the best of our scientific knowledge, human life has no meaning. The meaning of life is always a fictional story created by us humans.
Their wordsWe experience greater happiness and life purpose when we are able to construe our lives as more than just a collection of isolated, fleeting moments and can transform those moments into critical pieces of a significant journey.
Their wordsFor the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour.
Their wordsThere is no sovereign recipe in this matter which suits all; each one must find out for himself by which particular means he may achieve felicity.
A viewour reading
Their wordsHappier couples tend to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Rather than assuming "My partner doesn't care," they're more likely to consider that the other is tired, distracted, overwhelmed or simply unaware of the impact of their behavior.
Their wordsInvesting into relationships is a better deal than investing into crypto.
Their wordsMost people should get married and have kids much earlier than the current average (and have more kids than the current average). Doing this successfully (without screwing it up with selfish pride) will make the world better and make them happier than anything else they’re doing.
Their wordsIn any case I think meaning comes mostly from human relationships and connection, not from economic labor.
Their wordsCultivate deep relationships through marriage, family, and real friendships. Remember that happiness is love.
Their wordsIf we step back and look at all 84 years of the Harvard Study and boil the findings down to a single principle for living, one life investment that is supported by similar findings across a wide variety of other studies, it would be this: good relationships keep us healthier and happier, period.
Their wordsWe tend to think that once we establish friendships and intimate relationships, they will take care of themselves. But like muscles, neglected relationships atrophy.
Their wordsWe avoid social situations, thinking alone time is the cure for our blues, but research shows we’d be happier if we connected with a friend.
Filed here becauseFour commitments, three of them other people.
Their wordsIt turns out that choosing to pursue four basic values of faith, family, community and work is the surest path to happiness, given that a certain percentage is genetic and not under our control in any way.
Their wordsThe salvation of man is through love and in love.
Their wordsOf all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
Filed here becauseThe cost of it: love is also where we are most exposed to suffering.
Their wordsWe are never so defenceless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have lost our love-object or its love.
Their wordsThe good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
Their wordsThe loveless to themselves belong alone; The loving men are others' to the very bone.
Their wordswhile the friendship of good men is good, being augmented by their companionship; and they are thought to become better too by their activities and by improving each other; for from each other they take the mould of the characteristics they approve
Their wordsOf all the means which are procured by wisdom to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.
A viewour reading
Their wordsHelping others benefits the one who helps. There is both a neural and a practical link between generosity and happiness.
Their wordsFinally, consider switching from a selfish me-me-me mindset to one that’s a bit more focused on others. Study after study shows that people are happier when they’re helping people in need.
Their wordsThe more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.
Their wordsNothing is so dull as to be encased in self, nothing so exhilarating as to have attention and energy directed outwards.
Their wordsWhen people who are tolerably fortunate in their outward lot do not find in life sufficient enjoyment to make it valuable to them, the cause generally is, caring for nobody but themselves.
A viewour reading
Their wordsBut in my experience, most people actually don't really think at all about what they're setting out to do. They don't sit down and consider what success would look like for them, what "enough" would feel like, what winning their particular game would mean.
Their wordsThere are plenty of billionaires who don't have it, plenty of ordinary people who have never lost it. So it doesn't take some enormous amount of money.
Their wordsBut when they looked at the happiness levels of these people, it was the average person who actually would self-report the highest levels of happiness. So ambition doesn't necessarily equate with happiness, which I think many people would agree with with that.
Their wordsthere is no research that suggests spending money generates happiness.
Their wordsthe average athlete who's taking a few million dollars more to move his wife and kids from one family, one city that they loves him and that he loves to some strange place where everybody's going to be unhappy.
Where this was said
Watch from 1:29:20 plays hereTheir wordsThere are two ways to use money. One is as a tool to live a better life. The other is as a yardstick of status to measure yourself against others.
Their wordsThere is no such thing as an objective level of wealth. Everything is relative to someone else.
Their wordsThis income threshold may represent the point beyond which the miseries that remain are not alleviated by high income. Heartbreak, bereavement, and clinical depression may be examples of such miseries.
Their wordsYet is important to note that the relationship is weak, even if statistically robust.
Their wordsWe also assume that happiness involves changing our circumstances: losing weight, getting buffer and earning more money. But as someone who teaches an entire course on the science of happiness, I know the research shows most of these popular January goals don’t improve our happiness as much as we assume.
Their wordsWe look for these things to fill an inner emptiness. They may bring a brief satisfaction, but it never lasts, and it is never enough.
Their wordsOf course you are driven to seek admiration, splendor and physical license. But giving in to these impulses will bring unhappiness.
Filed here becauseThe 2010 reading; the 2023 paper he co-wrote finds the plateau only among the least happy.
Their wordsWe conclude that high income buys life satisfaction but not happiness, and that low income is associated both with low life evaluation and low emotional well-being.
Their wordsWhat the data suggest is that above a certain level of stable income, individuals’ emotional well-being is constrained by other factors in their temperament and life circumstances.
Their wordsPower kept within its proper bounds may add greatly to happiness, but as the sole end of life it leads to disaster, inwardly if not outwardly.
Their wordsCompetition considered as the main thing in life is too grim, too tenacious, too much a matter of taut muscles and intent will, to make a possible basis of life for more than one or two generations at most.
Their wordsThe impression forces itself upon one that men measure by false standards, that everyone seeks power, success, riches for himself and admires others who attain them, while undervaluing the truly precious things in life.
Their wordsMost of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
Their wordsI tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private.
A viewour reading
Their wordsA reanalysis of Killingsworth’s experienced sampling data confirmed the flattening pattern only for the least happy people. Happiness increases steadily with log(income) among happier people, and even accelerates in the happiest group.
Their wordsLow income exacerbates the emotional pain associated with such misfortunes as divorce, ill health, and being alone.
A viewour reading
Their wordsBut the thing I was careful not to do was to change the lifestyle because I I watched people around me change the lifestyle so you can make a lot of money and still be broke.
Their wordsOnce you have some, the easiest way to increase your wealth is to decrease your needs.
Their wordsMaking money depends on other people, so it's harder. It's not entirely under your control. It's an outer game.
Their wordsthe cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
Their wordsa man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.
Their wordsOur life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!
Their wordsI went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Their wordsAlways bear this in mind; and another thing too, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.
Their wordsIndeed, if it be contented, it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Their wordsHe who is satisfied with his lot is rich; he who goes on acting with energy has a (firm) will.
Their wordsThere is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition; no calamity greater than to be discontented with one's lot; no fault greater than the wish to be getting. Therefore the sufficiency of contentment is an enduring and unchanging sufficiency.
Their wordsWho is content Needs fear no shame. Who knows to stop Incurs no blame. From danger free Long live shall he.
Their wordsHe whose (desires) are few gets them; he whose (desires) are many goes astray.
Their wordsAgain, we regard independence of outward things as a great good, not so as in all cases to use little, but so as to be contented with little if we have not much, being honestly persuaded that they have the sweetest enjoyment of luxury who stand least in need of it, and that whatever is natural is easily procured and only the vain and worthless hard to win.
Their wordsNature’s wealth at once has its bounds and is easy to procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to an infinite distance.
A viewour reading
Their wordsThe habituation to novel experiences makes spending money earlier in life more valuable than later in life.
Their wordsSo the money started to become like freedom tokens. This money means I can get out of the game.
Their wordsConsider money from my past self a gift. A gift from my former self to my current self.
Their wordsMy own assessment of the evidence is that money alone cannot buy happiness, nor can spending money to acquire possessions make one happy; but having the money to pay for experiences with loved ones, to free up time to spend on meaningful activities, and to support good causes does enhance happiness.
Their wordsUnspent money buys something intangible but valuable: freedom, independence, autonomy, and control over your time.
A viewour reading
Their wordsI think that's the other big misconception that some people have about wealth is that they conceive of it as some sort of checkpoint. Like once you've made it, then you can just kick back in leisure as though that was happiness.
Their wordsSuffering is the essential and nourishing ground from which all the delightful gifts of life emerge.
Their wordsbeing needed, being useful is far more attractive than leaning back in leisure
Their wordsI don’t think that makes you happy. I think constraints probably make you happy. And that’s a big lesson I learned then.
Their wordsIt's far easier to tune out, of course. To go to your happy place. But that's not where you're likely to make real progress.
Their wordsA good life is supported by a diverse array of focal things and practices, which tend to reward us with deeper, more meaningful experiences; a gratifying measure of bodily skill and competence; and possibly even a stronger fabric of relationships.
Their wordsThe liberation we are offered is a liberation from the very care-driven involvement in the world and in our communities that would render our lives meaningful and satisfying.
Their wordspeople who feel overwhelmed by life, or lost in its endless possibilities, might not need a lighter load, but a more meaningful burden instead
Their wordsYour first mission in life ought to be to ensure that all those free, best things are solidly in place before caring to chase the rest of the list.
Their wordsIt is almost impossible to have one without the other. A good life, in fact, is forged from precisely the things that make it hard.
Their wordsIn some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.
Their wordsI think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness.
Their wordsLaying stress upon importance of work has a greater effect than any other technique of living in the direction of binding the individual more closely to reality; in his work he is at least securely attached to a part of reality, the human community.
A viewour reading
Their wordsWhat is required to make the moral choices we ought to make in order to work for the end we ought to seek -- a whole life that is really good because it involves all the things that are really good for a man, all of them in the right order and proportion -- is moral virtue, which is nothing but a habitual disposition to prefer a good life to a good time, to choose what is really good in the long run over what is apparently good here and now.
Their wordsFinally, let it be said, as emphatically as possible, that these dispositions of character and of mind, which are virtuous insofar as they are employed in making a good life, cannot be formulated in rules or guidelines for action.
Their wordsThus a good will appears to constitute the indispensable condition even of being worthy of happiness.
Their wordsBlessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; neither do we rejoice therein, because we control our lusts, but, contrariwise, because we rejoice therein, we are able to control our lusts.
Their wordsThe perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.
Their wordsBut we must add 'in a complete life'. For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.
Their wordsFor if I tell you that to do as you say would be a disobedience to the God, and therefore that I cannot hold my tongue, you will not believe that I am serious; and if I say again that daily to discourse about virtue, and of those other things about which you hear me examining myself and others, is the greatest good of man, and that the unexamined life is not worth living, you are still less likely to believe me. Yet I say what is true, although a thing of which it is hard for me to persuade you.
Their wordsIt is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living pleasantly.
A viewour reading
Filed here becauseWith a cost: happier, but further from other people.
Their wordsThe more you drop this idea, the happier you are, and the more alien you feel.
Their wordsUnhappiness is the product of the number of times per minute that you believe circumstances should be otherwise.
Their wordsYou should learn to love not just your own fate, but the fate of the world - its turns, its twists, its progress, and even the inevitable regressions
Their wordsTaking greater joy from such a mundane activity as typing is one of those rare daily treats that just makes life a little better, a little more interesting
No longer holdsI was wrong about gratitude. I thought it was a guaranteed way to become happier
Their words nowI think the scientific evidence for gratitude is mostly a mirage. It’s not just unsupported, it verges on disproven.
Their wordsTo bear misfortune well when it comes, it is wise to have cultivated in happier times a certain width of interests, so that the mind may find prepared for it some undisturbed place suggesting other associations and other emotions than those which are making the present difficult to bear.
Their wordsFor the safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
Their wordsIf thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.
Their wordsUnhappy am I because this has happened to me? Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future.
Their wordsThrough not observing what is in the mind of another a man has seldom been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.
Their wordsSeek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.
Their wordsThere are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
Their wordsYou need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.
Their wordsAccustom thyself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply sentience, and death is the privation of all sentience; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an illimitable time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality.
A viewour reading
Their wordsSo think about this. If your brain is this most valuable tool you have in your journey to success and happiness, why would you destroy this tool for short-term pleasure? This sounds ridiculous.
Their wordsYour life will literally be longer, healthier, and happier, if you let nature wash over you regularly
Their wordsHealth outweighs all other blessings so much that one may really say that a healthy beggar is happier than an ailing king.
Their wordsDespite limited ability to detect within-person change due to temporal stability in responses, the absence of cross-lagged effects is informative: there is scant evidence of a meaningful relationship between social technology use and subsequent life satisfaction.
Their wordsI think these considerations of flourishing matter more than the psychological studies that everyone, including me, is so obsessed with.
Their wordsYoung people tend to be happier than older generations, but not in the Anglosphere
Their wordsthere's some interesting work on you know happiness being more curve linear like midlife is actually some of the lowest levels of happiness and life satisfaction
Their wordsthe individual who made that choice might be happy at the moment, but when you just get pummeled with stuff you're less interested in over the course of months, we ask, we run surveys at massive scales, we just see people start to become less and less satisfied with Instagram.
Their wordsI go back to usually when people are unhappy it's because these things are a little bit out of sync. Like they want this big thing, but they don't actually they're not actually excited about what it takes to do that thing and therefore it's just going to be a mismatch.
Their wordsLoneliness is an inherited biological adaptation signal that puts us into a state of threat.
Their wordsHappiness is none the less true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.
Their wordsThe world that we must seek is a world in which the creative spirit is alive, in which life is an adventure full of joy and hope, based rather upon the impulse to construct than upon the desire to retain what we possess or to seize what is possessed by others.
Their wordsA sedentary life is the real sin against the Holy Spirit. Only those thoughts that come by walking have any value.
No longer holdsPractising gratitude is a scientifically well-supported way to make yourself happier.
Matched by wording, not yet read into a view. The archive grows on its own, so this is where new claims wait for somebody to read them.
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