There’s a lot of misconceptions today about what it means to be happy and satisfied. The meaning seems to have shifted around a bit over time, and currently for many people, it doesn’t have all the importance that it could.
When you think of someone who’s successful, you imagine them as absolutely ecstatic, without a care in the world, and just living their life to its fullest extent. What many people don’t realize, though, is that there are a few different levels of personal satisfaction.
Moral Letters 74.28-29 states Sometimes virtue is widespread, governing kingdoms, cities, and provinces, creating laws, developing friendships, and regulating the duties that hold good between relatives and children; at other times it is limited by the narrow bounds of poverty, exile, or bereavement. But it is no smaller when it is reduced from prouder heights to a private station, from a royal palace to a humble dwelling, or when from a general and broad jurisdiction it is gathered into the narrow limits of a private house or a tiny corner. Virtue is just as great, even when it has retreated within itself and is shut in on all sides. For its spirit is no less great and upright, its sagacity no less complete, its justice no less inflexible. It is, therefore, equally happy. For happiness has its abode in one place only, namely, in the mind itself, and is noble, steadfast, and calm; and this state cannot be attained without a knowledge of things divine and human.
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