Of course the world of work begins to become - threatens to become - our only world, to the exclusion of all else. The demands of the working world grow ever more total, grasping ever more completely the whole of human existence.
Josef PieperRead
Happiness and joy are not the same. For what does the fervent craving for joy mean? It does not mean that we wish at any cost to experience the psychic state of being joyful. We want to have reason for joy, for an unceasing joy that fills us utterly, sweeps all before it, exceeds all measure.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness is a deeper state than mere joy, which is often fleeting and based on external circumstances.
In this quote, Josef Pieper distinguishes between happiness and joy, highlighting that true happiness is not simply about the pursuit of joyful moments. Instead, he suggests that happiness arises from a profound sense of fulfillment and purpose that transcends transient emotions, emphasizing the importance of having substantial reasons for joy that profoundly influence our state of being.
Themes
HappinessJoyFulfillmentReasonPsychic State
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech emphasizing the importance of finding fulfillment in life.
More from Josef Pieper
All quotes →Being precedes Truth, and ... Truth precedes the Good.
Josef PieperRead
Repose, leisure, peace, belong among the elements of happiness. If we have not escaped from harried rush, from mad pursuit, from unrest, from the necessity of care, we are not happy. And what of contemplation? Its very premise is freedom from the fetters of workaday busyness. Moreover, it itself actualizes this freedom by virtue of being intuition.
Josef PieperRead
The eye of perfected friendship with God is aware of deeper dimensions of reality, to which the eyes of the average man and the average Christian are not yet opened.
Josef PieperRead
The common element in all the special forms of contemplation is the loving, yearning, affirming bent toward that happiness which is the same as God Himself, and which is the aim and purpose of all that happens in the world.
Josef PieperRead
The happy man needs nothing and no one. Not that he holds himself aloof, for indeed he is in harmony with everything and everyone; everything is "in him"; nothing can happen to him. The same may also be said for the contemplative person; he needs himself alone; he lacks nothing.
Josef PieperRead
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When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
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I had thought joy to be rather synonymous with happiness, but it seems now to be far less vulnerable than happiness. Joy seems to be a part of an unconditional wish to live, not holding back because life may not meet our preferences and expectations. Joy seems to be a function of the willingness to accept the whole, and to show up to meet with whatever is there. It has a kind of invincibility that attachment to any particular outcome would deny us.
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Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.
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Whether happiness may come or not, one should try and prepare one's self to do without it.
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Happiness and success in life are not the result of what we have, but rather of how we live. What we do with the things we have makes the biggest difference in the quality of life.
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