The sentences “I am happy” and “I want to be happy” are often used. The word happiness itself is also considered to be important. To give a simple example, it was among the first 100 words I learned in Chinese from my Mandarin book. In the 19th century, the Archbishop of Dublin, Richard Whately, already wrote “happiness is no laughing matter”. It should be taken seriously, but before you can do that, you need to define what happiness is exactly. If you want to become happy, you first have to know what it is.

A simple English dictionary tells us that happiness can be defined as “good fortune”. Since so many people wants to reach a state of happiness, I can not believe that this simple description is complete. Besides that, it is not very concrete.
                If I read what others say about happiness, we can select a variety of things. The first that pops up is of course money. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) wrote: “Money is human happiness in the abstract.” Many would say that winning the lottery leads to happiness. Besides money, love is also mentioned often when talking about happiness. Victor Hugo wrote in his well known roman ‘Les Miserables’ from 1862: “Life’s greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved”. This love is mostly found among friends and family. George Burns wrote once: ”Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.”
              Other things can be added to the list as well, food for example.  Brillat-Savarin wrote in 1825 in ‘Physiologie du Gout’ that “the discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star”. John Gunther (1901-1970) is even more specific about food: “All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast”.
                Happiness can be seen in things we consider bad as well. John Lennon, the most famous member of the Beatles, wrote in 1968 a song called “Happiness is a warm gun”. Even though there is a debate going on about how to interpretate this song, we all know what happened to Lennon: he was shot in 1980.
                Non of those things listed above is enough to describe happiness. Therefore, happiness can best be formulated as a combination of the things mentioned above. At least, that is what Jean Jacques Rousseau stated when he said: “Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion.”
From this part, I can conclude happiness is a fulfillment of the basic needs of people: food, love, economic power and a good health. Nevertheless, a famous Dutch saying states the opposite: “Happiness is in the small things.” Edward A. Newton therefore points out that “the formula for complete happiness is to be very busy with the unimportant”.

Looking at the list above, a man can not be satisfied. Is this happiness or do we have to look deeper? I believe so. Oscar Levant (1906-1972) noticed that “happiness isn’t something you experience: it’s something you remember.” Levant looks back to a certain point in history, while Roy Goodman stated that the opposite is true. “Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination”. Charleton Ogburn jr. agrees with Goodman: “Happiness is to a dog what lies on the other side of a door.” He concludes that there is more happiness to be found in the unknown and in the expectation of something good than in the expected goods or event itself.

From my own point of view, most quotations listed above contain a part that can be seen as a true statement, while most of them also contain arguable parts. One thing is clear, all of them are incomplete. What do you think? What is happiness?