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CHAPTER THREE
In Pursuit Of Happiness
very one of us is straining and striving for happiness. When we are happy, we do not say, “O God, what have I
done to deserve this happiness?” We look on happiness as ours by right. But when pain comes to us we look at it as something foreign and outside ourselves; in spite of our striving for happiness, it has descended, unwelcome, upon us. Therefore, it is rue that every one seeks his happiness first and foremost, above all things. The cause of all our thinking and acting, the motorspring of human activity, is solely and simply happiness.
It is on account of this insatiable thirst for happiness that object after object are tried as means for providing that elusive happiness, adhered to for a time, and then, ultimately, when proved to be insufficient, discarded and replaced by a seemingly better one. The young man seeks it in making money and getting married. Thence it is shifted to status and family. The pursuit of honour and distinction occupies the thoughts of the more advanced in age. And then?
The question arises as to what is the proper object for us to cherish? Money has failed to procure happiness whenever it has
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