UNHAPPINESS
For most of the people the world is
a place of suffering. It is not one for happiness. The English novelist Thomas
Hardy (1840-1928) said in his novel The
Mayor of Casterbridge “Happiness is
but an occasional episode in the general drama of pain.“
Happiness means: joy, bliss, gaiety,
gladness, delight, ecstasy, euphoria, cheerfulness, high spirits, etc.
To be happy is to be contented with
your fate, present physical and mental
health, material possessions, all-round, achievements, etc.
The Roman statesman, scholar,
philosopher, orator, and writer Marcus
Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) believed : A perverse temper, and a discontented ,
fretful disposition, wherever they prevail , render any state of life unhappy.
According to the Scottish essayist
and historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) man’s unhappiness comes of his
greatness; it is because there is an infinite in him, which, with all his
cunning, he cannot quite bury under the finite.
The main cause of people’s unhappiness
is the continuous multiplication of their desires. It is unfortunate that they lack
contentment, and go on asking for more. They
also do not forget their past aberrations, vices, immoral deeds, and sins for long times to come.
The American poet and essayist Walt
Whitman (1819-1892) said:
I think I could turn and live with
animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long
and long.
They do not sweat and whine about
their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and
weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing
their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is
demented with the mania of owning things.
Not one kneels to another, nor his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is responsible or unhappy
over the whole earth.
Finally, the
following quote by the French tragedian Pierre Corneille (1606-1684):
We never
enjoy perfect happiness; our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness;
some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.
****
G. R. Kanwal
26th April 2026
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