The Pursuit of Happiness

To cease thinking about or attending to a woman is, so far, to cease loving; to cease thinking about or attending to a dreaded thing is, so far, to cease being afraid. But to attend to our own love or fear is to cease attending to the loved or dreaded object. In other words the enjoyment and the contemplation of our inner activities are incompatible. The surest way means of disarming an anger or a lust is to turn your attention from the girl or the insult and start examining the passion itself. The surest way of spoiling a pleasure is to start examining your satisfaction.

Pleasure is a byproduct, not an end. Pleasure is what we receive from reading a good book or watching a beautiful sunset. When we focus not on the book or the sunset but the pleasure they produce we at once lose all pleasure.

This is from where addictions arise. Addiction is the pursuit of a pleasure. But when we pursue pleasure we grasp at phantoms and chase after wind. We seek after something that, in itself, can never be found.

Only by looking to other things and people beyond ourselves can we love or enjoy anything at all.