Many sincere people are deterred from seeking happiness because they feel that it would be "selfish" or "wrong." Unselfishness does make for happiness, for it not only gets our minds directed outward away from ourselves and our introspection, our faults, sins, troubles (unpleasant thoughts), or pride in our "goodness," but it also enables us to express ourselves creatively, and fulfill ourselves in helping others. One of the most pleasant thoughts to any human being is the thought that he is needed, that he is important enough to help and add to the happiness of some other human being. However, if we make a moral issue out of happiness and conceive of it as something to be earned as a sort of reward for being unselfish, we are very apt to feel guilty about wanting happiness. Happiness comes from being and acting unselfishly—as a natural accompaniment to the being and acting, not as a "pay off" or prize. If we are rewarded for being unselfish, the next logical step is to assume that the more self-abnegating and miserable we make ourselves, the more happy we will be. The premise leads to the absurd conclusion that -the way to be happy is to be unhappy.
If there is any moral issue involved it is on the side of happiness rather than unhappiness. "The attitude of un-happiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly," says William James. "What can be more base and unworthy than the pining, puling, mumping mood, no matter by what outward ills it may have been engendered? What is more injurious to others? What less helpful as a way out of the difficulty? It but fastens and perpetuates the trouble which occasioned it, and increases the total evil of the situation."
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