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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True happiness comes from within and does not depend on external factors or people.
This quote by Josef Pieper emphasizes the idea that genuine happiness is derived from self-sufficiency and inner peace rather than external circumstances or relationships. A truly happy person does not crave validation or material possessions; instead, they find fulfillment in their own being and in harmony with the world around them.
Themes
HappinessSelf-SufficiencyInner PeaceHarmonyContentment
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about what it means to be happy, this quote can remind audiences that true happiness is internal.
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
To celebrate a festival means: to live out, for some special occasion and in an uncommon manner, the universal assent to the world as a whole.
Josef PieperRead
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Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil - or else an absolute ignorance.
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One thing is certain: you can never become anything other than yourself, and unless you become yourself you cannot be happy. Happiness happens only when a rosebush grows roseflowers; when it flowers, when it has its own individuality. You may be a rosebush and trying to flower as lotus flower - that is creating insanity. Erase the mind. And the way to erase it is not by fight: the way to erase it is just to become aware.
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My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn't that enough for a whole lifetime?
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