The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

by Jonathan Haidt

We are social creatures who need love and attachments, and we are industrious creatures with needs for effectance, able to enter a state of vital engagement with our work. We are the rider and we are the elephant, and our mental health depends on the two working together, each drawing on the others’ strengths.

Happiness is not something that you can find, acquire, or achieve directly. You have to get the conditions right and then wait.

Just as plants need sun, water, and good soil to thrive, people need love, work, and a connection to something larger. It is worth striving to get the right relationships between yourself and others, between yourself and your work, and between yourself and something larger than yourself. If you get these relationships right, a sense of purpose and meaning will emerge.

A good place to look for wisdom, therefore, is where you least expect to find it: in the minds of your opponents.