topics: |  philosophy

Quotations

p.1 "Animals are happy so long as they have health and enough to eat"
How can one know if this is indeed true or not?

Boredom, I believe, [is] one of the great motive powers throughout the
historical epoch, and is so at the present day more than ever.  Boredom would
seem to be a distinctively human emotion. Animals in captivity, it is true,
become listless, pace up and down, and yawn, but in a state of nature I do
not believe that they experience anything analogous to boredom. - p.44
[assumes Anthro-distinctiveness - if animals exhibit boredom in a cage,
where did they get this behavioural capability from, if not in nature? - AM]

Contents

PART I: Causes of Unhappiness
1. What makes people unhappy?
2. Byronic unhappiness,
3. competition,
4. boredom and excitement,
5. Fatigue,
6. Envy,
7. The sense of sin
8. Persecution mania and
9. Fear of public opinion

PART II Causes of Happiness
10. Is happiness still possible?
11. Zest,
12. Affection,
13. The family,
14. Work,
15. Impersonal interests
16. Effort and resignation
17. The happy man