Happiness : a philosopher's guide / Frédéric Lenoir ; translated by Andrew Brown.

Includes bibliographical references.

Loving the life you lead -- In the garden of pleasures, with Aristotle and Epicurus -- Giving meaning to life -- Voltaire and the happy idiot -- Does every human being wish to be happy? -- Happiness is not of this world: Socrates, Jesus, Kant -- On the art of being oneself -- Schopenhauer: happiness lies in our sensibility -- Does money make us happy? -- The emotional brain -- On the art of being attentive...and dreaming -- We are what we think -- The time of a life -- Can we be happy without other people? -- The contagiousness of happiness -- Individual happiness and collective happiness -- Can the quest for happiness make us unhappy? -- From desire to boredom: when happiness is impossible -- The smile of the Buddha and Epictetus -- The laughter of Montaigne and Chuang Tzu -- The joy of Spinoza and Ma Anandamayi.

A huge bestseller in Europe, Frederic Lenoir's Happiness is an exciting journey that examines how history's greatest philosophers and religious figures have answered life's most fundamental question: What is happiness and how do I achieve it? From the ancient Greeks on--from Aristotle, Plato, and Chuang Tzu to the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad; from Voltaire, Spinoza, and Schopenhauer to Kant, Freud, and even modern neuroscientists--Lenoir considers the idea that true and lasting happiness is indeed possible.