If you look around at the men and women whom you can call happy， you will see that they all have certain things in common. The most important of these things is an activity which at most gradually builds up something that you are glad to see coming into existence. Women who take an instinctive pleasure in their children can get this kind of satisfaction out of bringing up a family. Artists and authors and men of science get happiness in this way if their own work seems good to them. But there are many humbler forms of the same kind of pleasure. Many men who spend their working life in the city devote their weekends to voluntary and unremunerated toil in their gardens， and when the spring comes， they experience all the joys of having created beauty.
The whole subject of happiness has， in my opinion， been treated too solemnly. It had been thought that man cannot be happy without a theory of life or a religion. Perhaps those who have been rendered unhappy by a bad theory may need a better theory to help them to recovery， just as you may need a tonic when you have been ill. But when things are normal a man should be healthy without a tonic and happy without a theory. It is the simple things that really matter. If a man delights in his wife and children， has success in work， and finds pleasure in the alternation of day and night， spring and autumn， he will be happy whatever his philosophy may be. If， on the other hand， he finds his wife fateful， his children’s noise unendurable， and the office a nightmare； if in the daytime he longs for night， and at night sighs for the light of day， then what he needs is not a new philosophy but a new regimen—a different diet， or more exercise， or what not.
道德家们常说：幸福难求。唯有不明智地追寻，幸福才会遥不可及。蒙特卡洛城的赌徒们追求财富，而多数人却输掉钱财；但有人以另外的途径获得财富。追求幸福亦如此。如果你想沉醉于酒精，以获得幸福感，只能暂时忘记烦恼。伊壁鸠鲁仅和同道者一起生活，且只吃干面包（奶酪，唯有节日才加点），也是他追求幸福的途径。在这方面，他是成功的，但这导致他体弱多病。而多数人需要旺盛的精力，这样追求快乐过于抽象，且操作性不强。但是，我想，除传奇之人和英雄人物外，无论你以何种准则来生活，都不应与幸福背道而驰。