A Field Guide to a Happy Life Quotes

“Seneca actually explicitly says in his thirty-third letter to his friend Lucilius: Will I not walk in the footsteps of my predecessors? I will indeed use the ancient road—but if I find another route that is more direct and has fewer ups and downs, I will stake out that one. Those who advanced these doctrines before us are not our masters but our guides. The truth lies open to all; it has not yet been taken over. Much is left also for those yet to come.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“Touch everything lightly, enjoy it while it is within your reach, and do not regret it when it is gone, since that is the nature of things.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“Now here are three stages of wisdom: the unwise person blames other people for what are, in the end, her own judgments about things; the person who is making progress does not blame others, but only herself; the wise person does not blame even herself.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“Shift your goals from the external to the internal: repeat to yourself that your objective is not to hit the target, but to deliver the best shot of which you are capable”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“There is no way to get everything in life: You either cultivate your own reason and give precedence to virtue above all else, or you desperately go after externals. You will either give priority to things within you, or to those outside of you. There is a trade-off, and you have to decide which way to go.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“The same goes even for death itself: it cannot be a bad thing, because you will not be there when it arrives.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“The most recent modern rendition of the Enchiridion is due to Sharon Lebelle in 1995, under the title The Art of Living: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“I. What decides whether a sum of money is good? The money is not going to tell you; it must be the faculty that makes use of such impressions—reason. (Discourses I, 1.5) II. Whenever externals are more important to you than your own integrity, then be prepared to serve them for the remainder of your life. (Discourses II, 2.12) III. Speaking for myself, I hope death overtakes me when I’m occupied solely with the care of my character, in an effort to make it undisturbed, free, unrestricted and unrestrained. (Discourses III, 5.7) IV. The more we value things outside of our control, the less control we have. (Discourses IV, 4.23)”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“HERE IS A GOOD WAY to navigate your life: remember that for anything that happens to you, you will find the resources within you to deal with it.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“So what can you do? Shift your goals from the external to the internal: repeat to yourself that your objective is not to hit the target, but to deliver the best shot of which you are capable; it is not to get the job promotion, but to be the most deserving candidate for it; it is not for someone else to love you, but to be the most loving person you can be. If you redirect your attention and desires in this fashion, you will be happy and serene.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“The discipline of action, then, is concerned with learning how to properly act in the world, both toward ourselves and toward others.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“Epictetus. The words in questions were, I have to die. If it is now, well then I die now; if later, then now I will take my lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived—and dying I will tend to later.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“From these observations they derived the fundamental axiom of their philosophy: a good human life, what the ancients called a eudaemonic life, is one that is lived by applying reason to the betterment of society.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living