To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Happiness allegedly requires stupidity and selfishness but without stupidity one is doomed regardless of other traits.
- In plain terms
- To be happy you must be stupid and selfish or else you lose everything.
- What can you take from it?
- Ignorance may protect happiness by avoiding painful truths.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does knowing less make you happier?
- Is selfishness necessary for happiness?
Another view
Some people find happiness through awareness rather than ignorance.
More from Gustave Flaubert
There is no truth. There is only perception.
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