December 19

The true good is always in our hands. It follows a good life like a shadow.

1

God has placed everything that can make us better and happier right in front of us or nearby.

— Seneca

2

There is no body that is too strong and healthy to get sick; there is no wealth that does not vanish; there is no power that is too great to be undermined. It is all perishable and transient, and a human being for whom these things constitute his life will always experience anxiety, fear, disappointment and suffering. He will never attain his desires and instead will fall into the very things he wants to avoid.

Only the human soul is more secure than an unassailable fortress. Why do we do everything we can to weaken this sole stronghold of ours? Why do we do the things that cannot give us spiritual joy, not caring about the one thing that can give our soul tranquility?

We all forget that no one can harm us if our soul is pure, and that it is only our lack of wisdom and our desire to possess external trifles that are the cause of our quarrels and enmities.

— Epictetus

3

The one who spends his life perfecting his spirit cannot be unhappy, because that which he desires is always in his power.

— Pascal

4

Happiness, true happiness, is itself a virtue.

— Spinoza

5

People who do not understand true life always direct their activities towards the acquisition of pleasures, ridding themselves of suffering and fleeing from their inevitable death.

But their desire for pleasure intensifies their struggle, increases the sensation of suffering and brings death closer to them. In order to hide from themselves the approach of death, such people know only one means: keep increasing one’s pleasure.

But pleasure has its limit, beyond which it turns into suffering and the fear of one’s ever approaching death.

For people who do not understand life, the main cause of this suffering lies hidden in the fact that the thing they consider pleasure cannot be equally distributed among everyone and must be taken from others by force. But taking away the thing they need from others by force destroys the possibility of universal goodwill, of the love which alone gives people the true good.

And so, the more effort one expends on trying to attain such pleasures, the more difficult it becomes to attain the only good that is accessible to a human being—love.

6

There are two types of happy spiritual states: 1) a tranquil soul (a pure conscience); 2) a heart that is always happy. The first is achieved under the condition that a human being does not recognize himself guilty of anything and has a clear notion of the insignificance of earthly goods; the second is a gift of nature.

— Kant

7

To make every moment of our life as good as possible, regardless of whether the hand we are dealt by fate is lucky or unlucky, that is the art of life and the true advantage of a rational being.

— Lichtenberg

8

The most reliable and pure joys of human life are attained without spiritual unrest and can be recalled without remorse.

— John Ruskin

The one who says that doing good makes him feel unhappy either does not believe in God, or that which he is doing and considers good is not good.