And why would we possibly want to feel anything…

And why would we possibly want to feel anything other than happy? The French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) perhaps said it most strikingly: "All men are in search of happiness. This is the motive for men's every action, even those who are going to hang themselves."

— from Enjoy the Flight (Living/Balance/Happiness/Passion) · Life Worth Living: a Guide to What Mattesr Most by Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ry

In the book

Let me get the thing itself straight for you, children, because most people spend a lifetime chasing the wrong quarry. We are all after it — Pascal said the search for happiness is the motive behind every human action, even those of the man about to hang himself, and William James thought the same, calling it "the secret motive of all that men do". But the ancient Greeks gave the target a better name than ours: eudaimonia, human flourishing — thriving, relishing life, being a good person — reached by way of an even keel, so that you neither soar when things go well nor crash when they go badly. — Enjoy the Flight (Living/Balance/Happiness/Passion)

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