One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways - Bertrand Russell http://www.worldhum.com/features/speakers-corner/journey-to-ithaca-2010…
It's easy to wallow in the dark, to be cynical. It's a brave choice to be happy. It's taking a stand.
Happiness is most often a collective feeling that comes from collective accomplishment and collective comfort, rather than one that comes from individual pursuits. That would tend to rule out the pursuit of wealth and possessions - John Perry Barlow, http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2008/09/22.html#a2248
Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so - John Stuart Mill
Americans aren't happy, they're just trained to look as if they are. It's fake orgasm on a grand scale, and we're almost deafened by the din - The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/09/barbara-ehrenreich-smile-lu…
[Comparing happiness to a butterfly] The more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder - Henry David Thoreau http://theschooloflife.typepad.com/the_school_of_life/2011/03/jules-eva…
So are we all really being watched over by "machines of loving grace"? If you've never seen the documentaries by Adam Curtis, full as they are of quirky and strangely compelling arguments, patterns and links between the seemingly unlinked, then sit back, ingest a huge pinch of salt, take it all in and think for yourself.
I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element...it is my mood that makes the weather - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The world is full of happy people, but no one ever hears of them. You have to fight and make a scandal to get into the papers - from A Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter
[Comparing happiness to a butterfly] The more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder - Henry David Thoreau http://theschooloflife.typepad.com/the_school_of_life/2011/03/jules-eva…