The Art of Happiness

Everyday we are faced with numerous decisionsand choices. And try as we may, we often don’tchoose the thing that we know is “good for us.”Part of this is related to the fact that the “rightchoice” is often the difficult one—the one thatinvolves some sacrifice of our pleasure.In every century, men and women havestruggled with trying to define the properrole thatpleasure should play in their lives—a legion ofphilosophers, theologists, and psychologists, allexploring our relationship with pleasure. In thethird century B.C., Epicurus based his system ofethics on the bold assertion that “pleasure is thebeginning and end of the blessed life.” But evenEpicurus acknowledged the importance ofcommon sense and moderation, recognizing that