Charles Spurgeon: The Meaning Of Happiness

“I don’t think that man was meant to attain happiness so easily. Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it” (Dumas 18).

Cliff Oxford’s essay “High Performance Happy” evaluates the effect that an individual’s happiness has on their beneficiality to society and how you should always strive to be the happiest you can be. Oxford’s main point is that

The pursuit of happiness is defined as “the fundamental right mentioned in the Declaration of Independence to freely pursue joy and live life in a way that makes you happy.” The ability to find happiness is a right guaranteed to all citizens in the United States, yet many countries do not possess the same rights as America and instead are plagued by corruption. Procuring contentment is a difficult journey for all people, but those who do not have access to knowledge will find it to be a much more daunting task. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag’s struggle to find joy under an oppressive regime required him to challenge his knowledge in a way he never truly had before. Happiness is analyzed constantly in the real world as well, and the philosophers and scientists who study it consistently link it to knowledge, as shown in the articles by Main, Socrates and in the article about Individualism. By gaining knowledge, a person can find a true sense of happiness due to the fact that contentment is found through intellectual freedom, the capacity to view the world on a deeper level, and the ability to make empowered choices.

In his article "In Pursuit of Happiness: Better Living from Plato to Prozac," Mark Kingwell describes how there has been many debates on the meaning of happiness for many years yet still a singular, justifiable definition eludes society. The pursuit to define and understand happiness has invited several debates, questions, arguments, and suggestions alike. In 1996, a hand full of genetic and behavioral studies suggest evidence that one’s achievable degree of happiness is genetically decided, with evidences showing that no achievement will change your happiness, you are either happy or you’re not. Some studies demonstrated a correlation between dopamine levels in the brain and expressions of personal satisfaction, while others indicated that

By including the dictionaries definitions, the author shows contradictory explanations for happiness. In addition, using common daily facts he demonstrates how people’s decisions are based on the happiness desire, which we can see by the following words: “… it is nonetheless implicit in our decisions and undertakings, the ordering principle or end of our human projects” (413). Also, Kingwell includes words from other writers, such as John Stuart Mill, Eric Hoffer, Nathaniel Hawthorne and John Ralston Saul, to emphasize the point that the excessive pursuit of happiness causes unhappiness, which makes its definition even more confusing and

Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people around the world. In America, happiness has been a necessity in our daily lives since Thomas Jefferson stated these famous words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, of Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Since then, Americans have been engaged in that act, pursuing happiness. However, as Ray Bradbury demonstrates in Fahrenheit 451, that special elements in our life which make us happy initially may eventually lead to our downfall. Beatty, the fire chief, has a contentious job which pulls him

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is full of important morals and themes. The book is flooded with symbolism and meaning to both the real world and science fiction world that Bradbury has created. With so many themes in this book it is difficult to choose the ones that contain the most importance, but some of them can be picked out from all the rest, for example, you must have bad things to have good things, you have to earn your happiness and finally, your opinions are influenced by the people around you. These themes show up multiple times in the book and are expressed heavily in the story.

A professor of history at Florida State , Darrin M. McMahon, in his New York Times article, “In Pursuit of Unhappiness”, (11-29-2005) he persuades that happiness is a relentless desire to achieve if you find it on your own. the article written by McMahon he quotes that ”Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness..”. He uses evidence to support his claim by using philosophers John Stuart mill and Carlyle quotes to prove that they all have similar views on how to achieve being happy and be cheerful.It's better to do something that makes you carefree rather than waiting for happiness to come “knocking at your door” as if you gain contentment as pure luck. Sometimes it is better to be bliss

In the essay “What Happiness Is,” Eduardo Porter states that happiness is a slippery concept. He believes that happiness doesn’t have a specific definition, it means different things to each person. In the essay happiness is broken down into 3 parts: satisfaction, positive feelings, and the absence of negative feelings. Porter says that most people think that money and economic stability will bring them happiness and because of that they will push themselves to do better at their jobs. He also states that people choose to do things that make them instantaneously happy, even though that choice could harm them in the long run. Another thing that Porter thinks happiness relates to is the quality of someone’s life and how when

How much money does it take to buy you happiness? Is it even possible to buy happiness? The ultimate goal that most people have always had, and will always have, is to be happy. Everybody has there own idea of happiness. How much money would it take for you to be truly happy? The quote “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness,” from Charles Spurgeon gives you more of a perspective on the fact that happiness is not materialistic but more spiritualistic. This does not mean that if you buy this brand new car that you will not be happy but that happiness can only get you so far in life. In the story, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we get his perspective, through many different characters, on whether or not money can buy you happiness. In this book we have many characters however there are many who have great aspects on happiness. FIrst we have Jay Gatsby who is very rich. Gatsby has a big house, an amazing car, a house full of staff and then some yet throughout the story we cannot determine whether or not he is happy. Then we have Myrtle Wilson who is married to the character of Mr. Wilson but we do not know if she is happy. Last but certainly not least we

In this reflective essay, a number of aspects of happiness and well-being, as well as questions relating to Martin Seligman’s task. Firstly, an explanations of the doctrine will be examined. Then, the relation between fun and the philanthropy will be discussed. To sum up, the question whether happiness is everything.

They say that you will never truly understand the beauty of life until you experience it yourself. You won’t be able to discover what it is that you love until you have done the things that you have imagined. You would get a large variety of answers if you asked everyone what the definition of happiness was. However, they would most likely be something similar to living a long, healthy, and blissful life. Our own meanings of happiness are bound to be diverse because we’re all so different.

Happiness might be in the smallest of the things but sometimes the material things won’t give you permanent feeling of joy, you might be happy with those things for a shorter time but it won’t be long lasting. Just as learning new skills requires effort, you will have to strive and work hard to achieve real, long lasting happiness.

Happiness can be defined in many different ways depending on who you are talking to. To me, it can be found listening to my favorite music with the volume turned all the way up. Through this experience I am able to immerse myself in something I truly love and be a be a better, lighter version of myself. For some, happiness is living in the moment and experiencing life as it passes, but for others it means living a life of virtue. Though happiness may look different for everyone, it is something that everyone is striving for. The definition of happiness incorporates different aspects of religion, science, and philosophy. To me, being happy means that someone has discovered who they truly are and what they believe in.

How does someone know if they are truly happy? Much of society have come to associate happiness with the pursuits of personal pleasures or that which makes us “feels good”. When we feel good we display positive expression of emotions such as joy, laughter, kindness and fewer negative emotions such as anger, hate, and sadness. To some people our happiness is already determined through our genes. Some people seek happiness through money and material possessions. However, many would argue that true happiness comes from within and gratifies a state of well-being. In my opinion, the understanding of true happiness is a personal experience and will vary among us. It's what makes us as individuals satisfied and content.