You don’t need a pill: Neo

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness
True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. — Keanu Reeves

Burkeman’s non-pursuit

"Sometimes it is the very pursuit of happiness that stops us from achieving it"

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/negative-thinking-oliver-burkeman/

Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.

—Viktor Frankl

2,500 years of happiness philosophy, distilled into 3 pillars | Jonny Th...

https://youtu.be/2WShJeNX7W8?si=XVj9sMUXQKmmIEhN

English heritage

That ubiquitous internet attribution to Ben Franklin of the line that beer is proof that God loves us is surely apocryphal.

"His (London) colleagues nicknamed him the Water-American because he refused to partake in the ubiquitous beer drinking: a pint before breakfast, with breakfast, after breakfast, with the midday meal, at six, and a last one before bed. (Franklin preferred Madeira.) Franklin also prided himself on healthy habits…"

— The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

Ephemeral joy

"Man craves happiness here on earth, not fulfillment, not emancipation. Are they utterly deluded, then, in seeking happiness? No, happiness is desirable, but it is a by-product, the result of a way of life, not a goal which is forever beyond one's grasp. Happiness is achieved en route. And if it be ephemeral, as most men believe, it can also give way, not to anxiety or despair, but to a joyousness which is…

—Henry Miller

https://www.threads.net/@philosophybits/post/DDX14Liz4T2?xmt=AQGzmpwTN6S84f0xNNjbz03inLNd5JdR-NbuWHs3DJhqpw

What is happiness?

"And where can you find it, if you ever can? We all know that its pursuit is guaranteed, right there in the Declaration of Independence—sort of improbably; I don't think many political charters include such a lighthearted instruction, the phrase "the pursuit of happiness" suggesting picnics and fireworks and flirtation more than it suggests the stern work of revolution…"

— All That Happiness Is: Some Words on What Matters by Adam Gopnik
https://a.co/g3BdXcb

the ultimate thanks-giving

"I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure."

When the poetic neurologist Oliver Sacks learned that he was dying, he wrote something almost unbearably beautiful about the measure of living — the ultimate thanks-giving:

https://mailchi.mp/themarginalian/oliver-sacks-gratitude

"A lot of hooey"--?

Happy Thanksgiving. 

“The kind of happy I was that day at the Vet when "Hawk" Dawson actually doffed his red "C" cap to me, and everyone cheered and practically convulsed into tears - you can't patent that. It was one shining moment of glory that was instantly gone. Whereas life, real life, is different and can't even be appraised as simply "happy", but only in terms of "Yes, I'll take it all, thanks" or "No, I believe I won't." Happy, as my poor father used to say, is a lot of hooey. Happy is a circus clown, a sitcom, a greeting card. Life, though, life's about something sterner. But also something better. A lot better. Believe me.”― Richard Ford, The Lay of the Land

Robert Waldinger: What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness

  

What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it's fame and money, you're not alone – but, according to psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, you're mistaken. As the director of 75-year-old study on adult development, Waldinger has unprecedented access to data on true happiness and satisfaction. In this talk, he shares three important lessons learned from the study as well as some practical, old-as-the-hills wisdom on how to build a fulfilling, long life.

Problematic