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An Irish Bishop once remarked that happiness is no laughing matter...
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tractor to plough a small part of my land. 
From the sound of the engine coming to life and the truly unique smell of its exhaust on that cold October morning, I had a sense of pure joy which I cannot relate to you here in words. I guess it's a "ROSEBUD" thing.
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Independent research has found that people were happier sixty or seventy years ago than today...
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I do not doubt the accuracy of this survey. According to a Lou Harris survey, the amount of leisure time shrunk 37 percent between 1973 and 1998. Watson Wyatt Worldwide found that in just the past nine years job satisfaction levels have dropped from 70% to 62% for workers responding within a very large, reliable 2,004 person sample.
The survey also noted a greater "DISCONNECT" between workers and management.
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Why would people living without all the stuff of modern life, with relatively inferior systems of mass travel and communications, with all the faults of olde tyme politics — based on superstition, racism, politics by "family" voting histories, hegemony, sexism, ageism and dominated by narrow dogmatic religious beliefs, small-town gossip and chatter, limited education, employment and social opportunities... ultimately be MORE happy...?
According to Classical Morality — derived from such philosophies as those based on the thinking of Plato and Epicurus, it is "not possible to live pleasantly without living intelligently and justly."
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As the major theorists such as Hobbes, Locke, Mill and Freud redefined the nature of what it was to be human, the soul-possessing creature of the middle ages — enmeshed with responsibilities, hierarchy, family and loyalty dissolved into the autonomous individual — mainly defined by his or her appetites: food, sex, acquisition and consumption of goods and services. The century of reason — transformed by I think; therefore I am — with ever increasing emphasis on the "I"!
Gone was the notion of external reward predicated on duty or self-sacrifice...
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One looked cool wearing cool clothes, acting and saying cool stuff like the ceaseless parade of cool icons which existed in the cool world.
Individuals were cool...
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The famous no longer needed to provide any tangible accomplishments, moral leadership, SAVE THE DAY with courage, valor or vision.
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All they needed to do is focus immense attention onto themselves. Notwithstanding the fact that from the first true "SUPERSTAR" onward, the reality has frequently been wildly different from the projected image! So while under the old rules the best, the bravest and the brightest were recognized and became famous, now one didn't need to be best, very brave or very bright — only recognizable to set the machinery of fame rolling.
"I think, therefore I am" transformed to just: "I am? — aaaah... COOL!"
So is there anything wrong with this picture?
In our so-called "post-modern" society, youngsters are deprived of their childhood. They go home to empty houses, prepare their own meals, get themselves off to school — they can't afford to be immature — to be children. The pace and stress of the world demands they grow-up fast. They are pseudo-sophisticated knowing all the phrases, images and grabbing onto the touchstones of the adult world: irony, cynicism, glamour, sex, violence, coolness and indifference — but knowing less and less of substance, greater perspective or the meaning of life.
With the industrial revolution male children began to lose direct connection with the home and the presence of an immediate male role-model. With the liberation of women from the home during the last fifty years, the seminal role of the family in shaping the attitudes of the next generation has been largely compromised. Every generation intrinsically tests the limits and the scope of what is acceptable individual behavior. In the current culture there is little to countervail selfish egotism — indeed it is rewarded and emulated. Almost paradoxically, the adult world worships foremost at the altar of perpetual youth, with its potent idyllic images of volatility, invincibility, passion and freedom rather than to honour the historically adult burdens of duty, leadership, responsibility or self-sacrifice.
QUESTION: What do you get when you combine a "Philosopher King" (Dr Stephen Emmott), a room full of application programmers, developers, computer scientists, engineers, philosophers, behavioral psychologists, MBAs, neuroscientists, aesthetic consultants, religious theorists and others in the "Think Tank" Financial Services Knowledge Lab in England? ANSWER: A microwave bank. |
Even with great improvements in technology, knowledge, education, convenience — coupled with an avalanche of government regulation, social engineering and Hollywood hype, the light is not shining very brightly for the future of the family or the individual — or for that matter the planet itself!
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The fact is: insecurity and fear are rampant.
While it may easily be argued that the economic forces of the global economy were never under control of the so-called "average guy" — in the world before us today, disempowerment appears to have grown, while cynicism toward government and fear of the demands of the market place appear to be on the rise everywhere! What has occurred is a fundamental disconnect between the governed and the governors where the metric of success is singular financial profit — free of any consideration of fairness, justice or other moral components.
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'The question is' said Humpty Dumpty
'Which is to be master — that is all'
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Lord Acton noted that power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely... I would add to that: powerlessness tends to corrupt, and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely!
The risks are obvious: the ever-growing power of the image-over-substance marketplace centered culture feeding off the ever-diminished power of the masses of humanity. The threat is obvious: traditional culture, the natural environment and overall political stability. Perhaps everyone — even the Masters of the Universe should note the direction before jumping on every bandwagon. Just because you may be able to manipulate the systems doesn't mean you should always do it for individual material gain — just something to think about as we slip into the 21st Century.
As Agathon noted — 2,400 years ago:
Even God cannot change the past.
chiming in during visit of Ontario Premier Mike Harris.
"...governments cannot pick winners, but losers can pick governments"
from an interview in High Frequency Economics
PROCESS MODEL ELEMENTS OF JOY:
Well, if you REALLY think you'll find happiness in a website...
Get thee to a library!
I SUGGEST YOU START WITH ANCIENT GREECE
AND WORK FORWARD...
(or backward, it doesn't really matter)
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. -Abraham Lincoln
Happiness is never stopping to think if you are. -Palmer Sondreal
Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy. -Robert Anthony
The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. -Mark Twain
If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time. -Edith Wharton
Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy. -Cynthia Nelms
Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad. -Norm Papernick
Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. -Fyodor Dostoevsky
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner. -Colette
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet. -James Openheim
Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open. -John Barrymore
"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. -A.A. Milne
People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost. -H. Jackson Browne
It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty and wealth have both failed. -Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard
Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. -Margaret Young
Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible. -St. Augustine
Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self? -Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. -Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts, 1931
This is my "depressed stance." When you're depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand. The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you'll start to feel better. If you're going to get any joy out of being depressed, you've got to stand like this. -Charlie Brown
Pleasure is spread through the earth
In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.
-William Wordsworth, 1806
Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. -Nathaniel Hawthorne
Happiness is a form of courage. -Holbrook Jackson
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all. -Jean de La Bruyere
Tranquil pleasures last the longest; we are not fitted to bear the burden of great joys. -Christian Nestell Bovee
We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. -Frederick Keonig
It's never too late to have a happy childhood. -Berke Breathed
Happiness? That's nothing more than health and a poor memory. -Albert Schweitzer
Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. -Eleanor Roosevelt
Happiness is a direction, not a place. -Sydney J. Harris
Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. -Janet Lane
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. -Author Unknown
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. -Dalai Lama
There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. -Lady Blessington
A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. -Bernard de Fontenelle
Is it not clear, however, that bliss and envy are the numerator and denominator of the fraction called happiness? -Yevgeny Zamyatin
Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination. -Immanuel Kant
Man must search for what is right, and let happiness come on its own. -Johann Pestalozzi
He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has. -Henry Ward Beecher
Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone. -Sigmund Freud
There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction. -Salvador Dali
The secret of happiness is to find a congenial monotony. -V.S. Pritchett
The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. -George Bernard Shaw
Real elation is when you feel you could touch a star without standing on tiptoe. -Doug Larson
We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier. -Walter Savage Landor
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness. -Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, 1954
If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years. -Bertrand Russell
The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment. -Doug Larson
What I'm looking for is a blessing that's not in disguise. -Kitty O'Neill Collins
My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy. -William Shakespeare
Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so. -John Stuart Mill, Autobiography, 1873
We are seldom happy with what we now have, but would go to pieces if we lost any part of it. -Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable. -Joseph Roux
As people spin faster and faster in the pursuit of merely personal happiness, they become exhausted in the futile effort of chasing themselves. -Andrew Delbanco
Happiness is the feeling you're feeling when you want to keep feeling it. -Author Unknown
Joy is a flower that blooms when you do. -Author Unknown
So long as we can lose any happiness, we possess some. -Booth Tarkington
Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy. -Gretta Brooker Palmer
Happiness is a way station between too little and too much. -Channing Pollock, Mr. Moneypenny
The happy have whole days,
and those they choose.
The unhappy have but hours,
and those they lose.
-Colley Cibber
When I do not walk in the clouds I walk as though I were lost. -Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. -Charles L. Morgan
Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. -Iris Murdoch
Happiness is... usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults. -Thomas Szasz
When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content. -Niccolo Machiavelli
You cannot always have happiness, but you can always give happiness. -Author Unknown
The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things. -Ernest Dimnet
One joy scatters a hundred griefs. -Chinese Proverb
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. -George Bernard Shaw, Candida, 1898
One should be either sad or joyful. Contentment is a warm sty for eaters and sleepers. -Eugene O'Neill
A man's as miserable as he thinks he is. -Seneca
One filled with joy preaches without preaching. -Mother Teresa
Misery is almost always the result of thinking. -Joseph Joubert
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate. -Thornton Wilder
Be happy. It's one way of being wise. -Colette
Precisely the least, the softest, lightest, a lizard's rustling, a breath, a flash, a moment - a little makes the way of the best happiness. -Frederich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness. -William Saroyan
People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy. -Anton Chekhov
Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens. -Douglas Jerrold
Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it. -Don Herold
If you are not happy here and now, you never will be. -Taisen Deshimaru
It is strange what a contempt men have for the joys that are offered them freely. -Georges Duhamel
If the day and night be such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more immortal - that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. -Henry David Thoreau, Walden
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all. -Jean de la Bruyere
The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid. -J.D. Salinger
The only time I was truly happy was as a child, before I knew what happiness was - or wasn't. -D.H. Mondfleur
Eden is that old-fashioned house we dwell in every day
Without suspecting our abode until we drive away.
-Emily Dickinson
Happiness is a function of accepting what is. -Werner Erhard
Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is. -Maxim Gorky
Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness; it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind. -John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, 1863
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. -Joseph Addison
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. -Samuel Johnson
There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. -Freya Stark, The Journey's Echo
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. -Robert Brault
In order to have great happiness you have to have great pain and unhappiness - otherwise how would you know when you're happy? -Leslie Caron
On the whole, the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so. -William R. Inge
I hate being happy. It pisses me off. Because I know if I try to grab it, it will slip away, like one of those goddamn water snakes. And I hate just looking. I always try to grab. -D.H. Mondfleur
I don't necessarily want to be happy; I just want to stop feeling miserable. -Terri Guillemets
To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others. -Albert Camus, The Fall, 1956
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. -Mahatma Gandhi
Happiness is like the penny candy of our youth: we got a lot more for our money back when we had no money. -Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness. -Don Marquis
If someone loves a flower of which just one example exists among all the millions and millions of stars, that's enough to make him happy when he looks at the stars. -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943, translated from French by Richard Howard
Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. -Quoted in The Cockle Bur
When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse. -Sophocles
Many things can make you miserable for weeks; few can bring you a whole day of happiness. -Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit. -Hosea Ballou
To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread. -Charles Caleb Colton
Some pursue happiness, others create it. -Author Unknown
The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. -Epictetus
Gather the crumbs of happiness and they will make you a loaf of contentment. -Author Unknown
Give a man health and a course to steer, and he'll never stop to trouble about whether he's happy or not. -George Bernard Shaw
Happiness is the natural flower of duty. -Phillips Brooks
But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? -Albert Camus
Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind. -Thomas Jefferson
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements in life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. -Charles Kingsley
You need to learn to be happy by nature, because you'll seldom have the chance to be happy by circumstance. -Lavetta Sue Wegman
It is a comely fashion to be glad; Joy is the grace we say to God. -Jean Ingelow
If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day. -W. Beran Wolfe
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. -Albert Camus
Happiness is the resultant of the relative strengths of positive and negative feelings rather than an absolute amount of one or the other. -Norman Bradburn
If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it, as the old woman did her lost spectacles, safe on her own nose all the time. -Josh Billings
Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it. -William Feather
Happiness is your dentist telling you it won't hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill. -Johnny Carson
I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. -J.D. Salinger
Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already possess it. -François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. -Marcel Proust
For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. -Author Unknown
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. -Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness
Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response. -Mildred Barthel
[U]sefulness is happiness, and... all other things are but incidental. -Lydia Maria Child, The American Frugal Housewife, 1829
Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. -Robert Frost
The best way for a person to have happy thoughts is to count his blessings and not his cash. -Author Unknown
Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling. -Margaret Lee Runbeck
Many people are extremely happy, but are absolutely worthless to society. -Charles Gow
All of us have had the experience of a sudden joy that came when nothing in the world had forewarned us of its coming - a joy so thrilling that if it was born of misery we remembered even the misery with tenderness. -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939, translated from French by Lewis Galantière
Most of us believe in trying to make other people happy only if they can be happy in ways which we approve. -Robert S. Lynd
I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to fourteen. -Abd-El-Raham
The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you'll never find it. -C.P. Snow
Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another. -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
