The Courage to Be Happy: Discover the Power of Positive Psychology and Choose Happiness Every Day

In the original Greek, philosophia has the meaning “love of wisdom.” In other words, philosophy is “the study of the love of wisdom,” and philosophers are “lovers of wisdom.” Conversely, one could say that if a person were to become a complete “wise man” who knows all there is to know, that person would no longer be a lover of wisdom (philosopher).

Yes! “Knowledge” here refers not only to scholarly studies but includes the knowledge that people need to live happily. In short, how one should live within a community.

Human beings are physically weak. But the human mind is second to none, much stronger than that of any other animal. I am sure you know well enough the degree to which spending one’s days in competition with one’s comrades is against the principles of nature. Community feeling is not some head-in-the-clouds ideal. It is a fundamental principle of l

The important point here is that these are tasks of interpersonal relationships. In a “work task” situation, for example, rather than treating one’s labor itself as the task, one focuses on the interpersonal relationships that are associated with it. In that sense, it may be easier to understand the tasks by thinking of them as “work relationships,

now. Let’s say that you are wishing you could change yourself. But changing yourself means giving up on, denying, and never again showing the face of “yourself until now,” as if you were sending it to its grave, in effect. Because once you have done that, you will be reborn as your “new self” at last. Now, regardless of how dissatisfied you may be

You took the step. You took a big step. Now, however, not only have you lost courage and let your feet come to a halt, you are trying to turn back. Do you know why?

One could also put it the other way around and say that if there were no other people left on earth and you were the only person alive, there would not be anything you would have to know, and education would not be necessary, either. You would not have any need for knowledge.

Put the other way around, nothing is scarier to humans than isolation. Isolated people have not only their physical security threatened, but their mental security as well. Because instinctively, we are well aware that we cannot live alone. As a consequence, we are always longing for a strong “connection” with other people. … Do you understand what

In Adler’s time, however, there was no psychologist more concerned with education. To Adler, education was not simply a core task—it was also the greatest hope.