幸福,是偎依在妈妈温暖怀抱里的温馨;幸福,是依靠在恋人宽阔肩膀上的甜蜜;幸福,是抚摸儿女细嫩皮肤的慈爱;幸福,是注视父母沧桑面庞的敬意。幸福是什么?幸福是一个谜,你让一千个人来回答,就会有一千种答案。有人说过:“真正的幸福是不能描写的,它只能体会,体会越深就越难以描写,因为真正的幸福不是一些事实的汇集,而是一种状态的持续。”幸福不是给别人看的,与别人怎样说无关,重要的是自己心中充满快乐的阳光,也就是说,幸福掌握在自己手中,而不是在别人眼中幸福是一种感觉,这种感觉应该是愉快的,使人心情舒畅,甜蜜快乐的。
It is a commonplace among moralists that you cannot get happiness by pursuing it. This is only true if you pursue it unwisely. Gamblers at Monte Carlo are pursuing money, and most of them lose it instead, but there are other ways of pursuing money, which often succeed. So it is with happiness. If you pursue it by means of drink, you are forgetting the hang-over. Epicurus pursued it by living only in congenial society and eating only dry bread, supplemented by a little cheese on feast days. His method proved successful in his case, but he was a valetudinarian, and most people would need something more vigorous. For most people, the pursuit of happiness, unless supplemented in various ways, is too abstract and theoretical to be adequate as a personal rule of life. But I think that whatever personal rule of life you may choose it should not, except in rare and heroic cases, be incompatible with happiness.
Man is an animal, and his happiness depends on his physiology more than he likes to think. This is a humble conclusion, but I cannot make myself disbelieve it. Unhappy businessmen, I am convinced, would increase their happiness more by walking six miles every day than by any conceivable change of philosophy.