The Secret of Happiness

Happiness comes from small things, and quickly it creates a contented life and sweet living...

One philosopher said: The world is madly searching for security and happiness. And the president of a university confessed that the world is running after a creed to hold fast to, and a song to sing... And a millionaire said: I thought that money would bring the longed-for happiness, but that is a mirage...

And a famous actress echoed: I have money, and beauty, and fame, and it is within my power to be happy — yet I am the most miserable creature in the universe. Why?...

And one of the scientists said: I have lost every hope of living; yet I still cling to the skirts of life.

One man went to see the psychiatrist and complained to him, saying: I am lonely, scattered, and miserable — can you help me? The doctor advised him to go to the theater, where he could watch a comic actor and be drawn to him, and so forget his care. The patient shook his head and answered: But I am that actor, sir!

A university student said: I am 23 years old; I have passed through experiences that made me despair of life and ask for death... And a Greek dancer said: I have not lived alone for a single moment, yet I weep, and my heart moans for one hour of rest that I shall never find...

A great man of politics once said to me: I am helpless now; life no longer has any savor for me; I have become ready to walk off into nothingness, into an unknown world. Can you, young man, scatter in my soul some remnant of hope?

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This material world of ours crawls toward the spring of happiness, gathering information along its way — but wisdom it lacks. The more money it amasses, the less its rest and the greater the strain; and the more it indulges in pleasures, the wearier it grows of living, and the more it demands them... The world is like a raging, restless creature: it finds shreds of happiness here and there, and they barely wet its tongue, so it goes on with the search, seeking to quench its thirst... Man kills, and deceives, and plunges into war, to sate his greed and his thirst for power and money and delights, thinking thereby to obtain happiness. Yet this obscure feeling that wraps his being forever promises him that there, in some corner of this world, is a wondrous spring in which happiness lies hidden... the happiness that increases the value of life... We promise ourselves that we shall reach the spring one day, and we may feel happiness in the possession of our hands — yet quickly it melts away and leaves us in stupefaction and despair...

True happiness is not in surface things.

It wells up from the self to fill the soul and the heart, even in the sharpest states of distress and pain...

It mocks difficulties, and laughs at obstacles, and chuckles behind the tears... Falls and failures cannot touch it, for its roots are in the deep of the depths; it grants us always the lasting rest, and security, and sufficiency.

Near my house there is a spring of water that never fails. A flood may sweep the plains around it, yet it is not drowned; and in the driest months of summer it neither dwindles nor runs dry... It is the best image of the happiness we seek... true happiness. For man by his nature is not satisfied unless he obtains three things:

First: that he is a creature made in the image of God, and he feels lonely without the friendship of his Creator; hence he needs a source wiser and stronger than himself to lead him on his way...

Second: he searches for truth — not scientific truth in invention and discovery alone, but the truth of his existence and his origin, his purpose and his future...

Third and last: he needs peace and security, to be freed from his scatteredness — a peace of the spirit that lightens for him the burdens of life!