Plain
Seneca — The Senator

A person who lives by these principles will naturally have steady happiness and deep joy. This joy comes from above because he delights in what he already has. He doesn't need any pleasures beyond what his own life provides. Isn't he wise to let these inner pleasures outweigh the petty, silly, and brief complaints of his weak body? The day he becomes immune to pleasure, he also becomes immune to pain. Look at the opposite — how evil and guilty is the slavery of someone who is ruled by pleasures and pains. These are the most unreliable and demanding masters you could have.

On the Happy Life, Section 4 15 of 101
Calm Your Mind Freedom & Control What Matters Most
Seneca — The Senator Original

A man of these principles, whether he will or no, must be accompanied by a continual cheerfulness, a high happiness, which comes indeed from on high because he delights in what he has, and desires no greater pleasures than those which his home affords. Is he not right in allowing these to turn the scale against petty, ridiculous, and shortlived movements of his wretched body? on the day on which he becomes proof against pleasure he also becomes proof against pain. See, on the other hand, how evil and guilty a slavery the man is forced to serve who is dominated in turn by pleasures and pains, those most untrustworthy and passionate of masters.

On the Happy Life, Section 4 15 of 101
Seneca — The Senator

Or we can define happiness this way: A happy person knows that good and bad come only from good or bad character. He values honor above all else. He's content with his own virtue. Good luck doesn't make him arrogant. Bad luck doesn't crush him. The only good he recognizes is what he can give himself. His real joy comes from not needing pleasures.

If you want to keep exploring this idea, you can say it many other ways without changing what it means. What's stopping us from saying that a happy life is simply a free mind? A mind that's honest, fearless, and steady. A mind that fear and desire can't touch. A mind that sees honor as the only good thing and shame as the only bad thing. Everything else — all those petty concerns — can't add to or subtract from real happiness. They come and go, but they never increase or decrease what truly matters.

On the Happy Life, Section 4 14 of 101
What Matters Most Knowing Yourself
Seneca — The Senator Original

Or we may choose to define it by calling that man happy who knows good and bad only in the form of good or bad minds: who worships honour, and is satisfied with his own virtue, who is neither puffed up by good fortune nor cast down by evil fortune, who knows no other good than that which he is able to bestow upon himself, whose real pleasure lies in despising pleasures. If you choose to pursue this digression further, you can put this same idea into many other forms, without impairing or weakening its meaning: for what prevents our saying that a happy life consists in a mind which is free, upright, undaunted, and steadfast, beyond the influence of fear or desire, which thinks nothing good except honour, and nothing bad except shame, and regards everything else as a mass of mean details which can neither add anything to nor take anything away from the happiness of life, but which come and go without either increasing or diminishing the highest good?

On the Happy Life, Section 4 14 of 101
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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