Democritus

1. Happiness is ‘undismay’

2. Happiness is a dynamic state

3. Happiness as prosperity and well-being

4. Best life: most cheerful, least disturbed

5. “Accept no pleasure unless it agrees with you.”

6. We cannot feel pleasure without hard work

Achievement makes hard work more pleasant than even rest would be. Only when unsuccessful is hard work “annoying and miserable.

7. Purpose in life

  1. Extension of skill
  2. Enlargement of purpose
  3. Enhancement of power, by knowing our extension of skill

In other words:

  1. Increase skill
  2. Increase purpose
  3. Increase power, control over our lives

8. Have a confident, experimental, adventurous attitude towards life

9. Our nature is not fixed; we can learn and change.

man’s nature is not fixed; as Heracleitus thought of man, he is a “self-increasing logos”

Our nature not fixed, we can self increase and self improve ourselves

10. Intent is more important than the deed or consequence

11. Well-being as a ‘cheerful soul’

12. Art

Art is “the soul’s power to change nature.”

We discover art from “the pressure of necessity”.

Also, by necessity, art must advance man’s ‘power’ and ‘self-sufficiency.’

13. What is a true pleasure versus false pleasure?

14. Don’t have unmeasured desires

“Unmeasured desires belong to a child, not a man.”