Aquinas on Happiness

The happy life does not mean loving what we posses, but possessing what we love. Possession of the beloved takes place in an act of cognition, in seeing, in intuition, in contemplation. “The ancients conceived the whole energy of human nature as a hunger–for being, undiminished actuality, for complete realization–which is not attainable in the subject’s isolated existence, for it can be secured only by taking into the self the universal reality. Hunger is directed towards the whole of being, toward everything that exists.” So it seems that contemplation is a full realization of the full presence of the object: person; world.

“Happy is he who sees what he loves.” It is only the presence of the thing or person loved that makes for happiness. Therefore without love there is no happiness. Love is the indispensable premise of happiness. But it is not enough – only the presence of what is loved makes us happy, and that presence is actualized by the power of cognition. Contemplation is a knowing which is inspired by love and that’s what makes us the most happy.

(Quotes from Happiness and Contemplation by Josef Pieper)

Tags: happiness