The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
Interpretation
Pursuing happiness directly can often lead to feelings of dissatisfaction instead of joy.
This quote by Eric Hoffer suggests that the relentless pursuit of happiness can ironically result in unhappiness. It implies that when individuals focus too much on seeking happiness as a goal, they may overlook the simple joys of life and become discontented due to unmet expectations.
In practice
Using this quote during a motivational speech about finding fulfillment in life.
Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.
We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.
At 11 years old, I made a very definitive decision, and my decision was that I wanted to be happy. Above and beyond anything I ever did in my life, I wanted to be happy.
I HAVE ALWAYS believed that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems.
Again I resume the long lesson: how small a thing can be pleasing, how little in this hard world it takes to satisfy the mind and bring it to its rest.
Many of us grew up with a kind of puritanism against shopping. But shopping can be much more than how it is cast. If you are bored or you have problems, it can be a way of lifting your spirits, by doing something light and superficial. Why not?
Happiness is... the grace of being permitted to unfold... all the spiritual powers planted within us.
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