From my bookshelf:

Arthur Schopenhauer’s Wisdom of Life

In this short little book, Schopenhauer writes his advice on how to be happy.

This may sound funny because his philosophy and general attitude toward existence is so pessimistic. It’s a bit like asking a hungry man where the food is. Though now that I say that, perhaps that’s exactly whom to ask.

Anyway, what I remember most about this book is that, surprisingly, Schopenhauer promotes living with cheerfulness—yes, cheerfulness—as much as one is able.

Here’s the passage that stuck with me:

“So if cheerfulness knocks at our door, we should throw it wide open, for it never comes inopportunely. Instead of that, we often make scruples about letting it in. We want to be quite sure that we have every reason to be contented; then we are afraid that cheerfulness of spirits may interfere with serious reflections or weighty cares. Cheerfulness is a direct and immediate gain, —the very coin, as it were, of happiness, and not, like all else, merely a cheque upon the bank; for it alone makes us immediately happy in the present moment, and that is the highest blessing for beings like us, whose existence is but an infinitesimal moment between two eternities. To secure and promote this feeling of cheerfulness should be the supreme aim of all our endeavours after happiness.”