Happiness

Someone once told me that most people they know are unhappy. This got me thinking about what it means to be happy. As usual, I looked online for definitions but didn't find much I liked. I did find some interesting quotes that I thought I'd share.

• When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. ~Helen Keller
• Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open. ~John Barrymore
• The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven. ~John Milton
• Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~Abraham Lincoln
• Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
• Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness; it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind. ~John Stuart Mill
• There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.
  --Freya Stark
• Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. --Robert Brault
• 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

This final quote really makes me think. Apparently this guy had everything we would assume necessary for happiness. Yet he only counts 14 days of genuine happiness. How many days of happiness would you count in your own life?

I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen.
--Abd Er-Rahman III of Spain, (960 C.E.)

Robin