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22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness

[how can happiness be achieved?]

31 ideas
The road of freedom is the surest route to happiness [Aristippus elder, by Xenophon]
One should exercise both the mind and the body, to avoid imbalance [Plato]
Plato decided that the virtuous and happy life was the philosophical life [Plato, by Nehamas]
For peace of mind, you need self-government, indifference and independence [Diogenes of Sin.]
If happiness can be achieved by study and effort, then it is open to anyone who is not corrupt [Aristotle]
Happiness needs total goodness and a complete life [Aristotle]
Happiness is activity in accordance with complete virtue, for a whole life, with adequate external goods [Aristotle]
The happy life is in accordance with goodness, which implies seriousness [Aristotle]
The best life is that of the intellect, since that is in the fullest sense the man [Aristotle]
Happiness involves three things, of which the greatest is either wisdom, virtue, or pleasure [Aristotle]
Happiness is composed of a catalogue of internal and external benefits [Aristotle]
The best life is not sensuality, but rational choice and healthy opinion [Epicurus]
Happiness is the end and goal, achieved by living virtuously, in agreement, and according to nature [Stoic school, by Stobaeus]
If a desire is itself desirable, then we shouldn't desire it, as achieving it destroys it [Sext.Empiricus]
We live for the past or future, and so are never happy in the present [Pascal]
Realising our future misery is a kind of happiness [Rochefoucauld]
Man's highest happiness consists of perfecting his understanding, or reason [Spinoza]
Supreme human happiness is the greatest possible increase of his perfection [Leibniz]
The happiest people link the beginning and end of life [Goethe]
We can never attain happiness while our will is pursuing desires [Schopenhauer]
Mill wondered if he would be happy if all his aims were realised, and answered no [Mill, by Critchley]
We can only achieve happy moments, not happy eras [Nietzsche]
The only happiness is happiness with illusion [Nietzsche]
The shortest path to happiness is forgetfulness, the path of animals (but of little value) [Nietzsche]
Happiness is not satisfaction of desires, but fulfilment of values [Bradley, by Scruton]
A happy and joyous life must largely be a quiet life [Russell]
In wartime, happiness is hating the enemy, because it gives the war a purpose [Russell]
We might not choose a very moral life, if the character or constitution was deficient [Frankfurt]
The quality of a life is not altogether independent of its length [Glover]
Control is the key to well-being [Kekes]
Well-being needs correct attitudes and well-ordered commitments to local values [Kekes]