经典英语美文

Happiness is a journey, not a destination

For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin , real life. But, there was always

some obsacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinnished business, time

still to be served or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin.

At last it dawned on me that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure

every moment that you have and treasure it more because you share it with someone special,

someone special enough to spend your time with. Make the most of your time. Don’t waste too

much of your time studying, working, or stressing about something that seems important. Do what

you want to do to be happy but also do what you can to make the people you care about happy.

Remember that time waits for no one. So stop waiting until you take your last test, until you

finnish school, until you go back to school, until you have the perfect body, the perfect car, or

whatever other perfect thing you desire. Stop waiting until the weekend, when you can party or let

loose, until summer, spring, fall or winter, until you find the right person and get married, until

you die, until your born again, to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

So work like you don’t need the money,

Love like you have never been hurt,

And dance like no one's watching.

The nature of happiness.

I live in Hollywood. You may think people in such a glamorous, fun-filled place are happier

than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.

Many intelligent people still equatehappiness with fun. The truth is that fun and happiness

have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we

experience after an act. It is a deeper, more abiding emotion.

Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities

that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring

happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends. I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness

has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant access to

glamorousparties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells "happiness".

But in memoir after memoir, celebrities reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun:

depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children, profound loneliness.

The way people clingto the belief that a fun-filled, pain-free life equates happiness actually

diminishes their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equated with

happiness, then pain must be equated with unhappiness. But, in fact, the opposite is true: More

times than not, things that lead to happiness involve some pain.

As a result, many people avoid the very endeavors that are the source of true happiness. They

fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional

achievement, religious commitment, civicor charitablework, and self-improvement.

The Joy of Living

Joy in living comes from having fine emotions, trusting them, giving them the freedom of a

bird in the open. Joy in living can never be assumed as a pose, or put on from the outside as a

mask. People who have this joy do not need to talk about it; they radiate it. They just live out their

joy and let it splash its sunlight and glow into other lives as naturally as bird sings.

We can never get it by working for it directly. It comes, like happiness, to those who are

aiming at something higher. It is a byproduct of great, simple living. The joy of living comes from

what we put into living, not from what we seek to get from it.