Quotations and Literature Forum

"Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so."~John Stuart Mill (1806~1873)

Could someone explain what the quote mean? Thanks!

The paradox of hedonism, also called the pleasure paradox, is the idea in the study of ethics which points out that pleasure and happiness are strange phenomena that do not obey normal principles. First explicitly noted by the philosopher Henry Sidgwick in The Methods of Ethics, the paradox of hedonism points out that pleasure cannot be acquired directly, it can only be acquired indirectly.


-copied from wiki... might help

I figure that if yo have to ask yourself if you're happy, then you probably weren't very happy in the first place.

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“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”


~Albert Einstein

When a person thinks, "Am I happy?", they begin to think of reasons why they wouldn't be. When the question is phrased like that, negative things seem to outweigh the positive things.


First post

Theoretically, happiness is a state of contentment in the mind. It is intangible and besides the exhibition of certain outwards signs, it is difficult to tell if a person is happy. If the mind starts questioning whether it is happy, then truly happiness is gone.

Questioning and reasoning brings forth doubtfulness so therefore there would be a leakage of happiness from the heart...

it means, the more you question your happiness, the more you have to be sad about. because your second guessing yourself.

i think...