Sunday, June 11, 2017

Happiness is... according to Great Men and Women


BE HAPPY!

119th Philippine Independence Day Message  
Happiness is, to great men and women, a motivating force to achievement and not its own result; of making others and not oneself feel happy and successful, of being treated fairly, of being cared for; of reaching out for a cause with great determination, and whether one succeeds or not, finds fulfillment at the end. Happiness is... what makes this world a better place to live in - indeed a mark of greatness of anyone who can contribute to it in his or her own way.~
Dr Abe V Rotor
 Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]
What is happiness to great people? 
Do they perceive the kind of happiness most people feel? Or do they have a world of their own too, when it comes to enjoying life?
Or, if their being unique and not understood in many ways, is the barrier - what then is happiness to them? Is there still a place of happiness in their genius?
Let's take it from some great figures of the world.

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Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources. Various research groups, including positive psychology, endeavor to apply the scientific method to answer questions about what "happiness" is, and how it might be attained. It is of such fundamental importance to the human condition that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" were deemed to be unalienable rights by the United States Declaration of Independence. (Happiness From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
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1. According to Saint Teresa (Mother Teresa)
To Mother Teresa, happiness serving the poor. To quote:
"I choose the poverty of our poor people. But I am grateful to receive (the Nobel) in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, of the crippled, of the blind, of the lepers, of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared-for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."
- Excerpt from the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech

Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu), born in Skopje, Yugoslavia (what is now Macedonia), moved residence in Calcutta, India; 1979 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; leader of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresea started the House for the Dying, the Missionaries of Charity to help lepers and victims in many disaster areas of the world. She was awarded the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize.
Happiness is...therefore, to great men and women, a motivating force to achievement and not its own result; of making others and not oneself feel happy and successful, of being treated fairly, of being cared for; of reaching out for a cause with great determination, and whether one succeeds or not, finds fulfillment at the end. Happiness is... what makes this world a better place to live in - indeed a mark of greatness of anyone who can contribute to it in his or her own way.~

 2. Happiness is... according to Albert Schweitzer 
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success . if you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
Albert Schweitzer was a Franco-German theologian, organist, philosopher and physician. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of Reverence for Life. His passionate quest was to discover a universal ethical philosophy, anchored in a universal reality, and make it directly available to all of humanity. He founded the famous Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene' 
in Gabon, then French Equatorial Africa.

3. Happiness is... according to Albert Camus 
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. 
But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? 
All men have a sweetness in their life. That is what helps them go on. It is towards that they turn when they feel too worn out.
Albert Camus was a French Algerian author, philosopher, journalist and footballer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times". He was a key philosopher of the 20th-century and his most famous work is the novel L'Étranger (The Stranger), and for his writings against capital punishment in the essay Réflexions sur la Guillotinehis views contributed to the rise of the more current philosophy known as absurdism. He wrote in his essay The Rebel that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom..
4. According to the Dalai Lama

  • The basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. And happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy.
  • If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
  • When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only make others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama
His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. Tibetans normally refer to His Holiness as Yeshin Norbu, the Wish-fulfilling Gem, or simply, Kundun, meaning The Presence. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his unwavering leadership in leading the Tibetans as one people in their own country amidst threats of China and the influence of modernism.


5. Albert Einstein, 
Man of the 20th century, was always in jovial mood while at work.  Here he plays a violin before delivering a lecture. The smiley face is a well-known symbol of happiness. 

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? Albert Einstein

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6. Buddha
To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him. Buddha

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness
never decreases by being shared. Buddha

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. Omar Khayyam

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. Dale Carnegie

There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved. George Sand

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. Albert Schweitzer

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. Franklin D. Roosevelt

The secret to happiness is freedom... And the secret to freedom is courage. Thucydides

A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being. James E. Faust

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. Nathaniel Hawthorne

Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness, of hatred, of jealousy, and, most easily of all, the gate of fear. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. Albert Camus

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. Oscar Wilde
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson

True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Happiness depends upon ourselves. Aristotle

Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul. Democritus

Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness. Leo Tolstoy

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. Ernest Hemingway

The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it. Jacques Yves Cousteau

A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live. Bertrand Russell
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The United Nations declared 20 March the International Day of Happiness to recognize the relevance of happiness and well being as universal goals. In 2014 Happy (Pharrell Williams song) became the anthem and inspired clips from around the world. Acknowledgment: Photos from the Internet

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