It is quite obvious, to those vouchsafed with reason, that what a man is, contributes much more to a man's happiness than what he has or what he represents.
Happiness ultimately depends on what a man has in himself - for it is this that accompanies him wherever he goes, and everything he sees and experiences is tinged by this thereof. Epictetus says: 'it is not things that disturb men, but opinions about things'. What he means is that two people may see or experience the same thing but their opinion of it will differ. Say, for example, you lose your job. If you are of positive & cheerful temperament than you will see this as an opportunity - to do what you enjoy. To the peevish and irritable, loosing one's job will be seen as a total disaster. These are all opinions. And they depend on what a man is in himself. Thus we come to a certain truth:
It is not what things are objectively and actually, but what they are for us and in our way of looking at them, that makes us happy or unhappy
Shakespeare recognised this and gives a fine description of this fundamental difference in temperament in the Merchant of Venice:
Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,
and laugh like parrots at a bag-piper;
And others of such vinegar aspect
that they'll not show their teeth in way of a smile
Thus what a man is in himself is the sole important determiner of our happiness. There are some of us who are paupers when it comes to inner wealth. The result of this is a mental dullness, an inner vacuity, and emptiness, that is stamped on innumerable faces, and betrays itself in constant chattering and lively attention to everything going on in the world. That is because there is nothing inside to act as stimulus. People with such an affliction constantly crave external stimulation: parties, socials, card games, family and friends, luxuries, amusements, diversions. Put such people in a room with only themselves for company and they will run away from themselves! Nothing protects us from this inner boredom than the wealth of the mind; the play of ideas, the constant ruminating, questioning, postulating, and the more eminent it becomes, the less room does it leave for boredom.
The clever and intelligent man will first of all look for painlessness, freedom from molestation, quietness, and leisure and thus a tranquil and modest life which is as undisturbed as possible. After some acquaintance with human beings and their manifold failings, the intelligent man, will wise up and choose seclusion and, if of greater intellect, even solitude. For the more a man has in himself, the less does he need from outside and the less other people can be to him. Therefore we are now coming to our conclusion: It is a fact, a fact proven when you look at the history of eminences, that great intellect leads to unsociability!
And I leave you now, on this beautiful cloudy Easter Weekend with sunshiny thoughts from our Greek friend Seneca:
'The very thing that makes people sociable is their inner poverty'
Have a happy Easter. And remember, the happy person does not say 'it is a dull cloudy day' but he will say 'the sun is always shining above the clouds, it just can't get through'
It just can't get through, but it is shining all the same.
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