How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
23/400
- Publication/creation
- London : George Routledge, 1932.
- Physical description
- xiv, 374 pages ; 22 cm
- Contributors
- Wolfe, W. Béran 1900-1935.
- Notes
-
This edition was reprinted in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946 and 1948.
Copy 1 Note: 1937 reprint. X158203
- Attribution and usage
-
Wellcome Collection
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The image contains the following text:
the dressing-table. He will not be striving for it as a
goal in itself, nor will he be seeking it among the nebulous
wastes of metaphysics. He will have become aware that
he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four
crowded hours of the day. If you have taken up this
book in the hope that you will find some magical formula
for attaining happiness, some panacea to cure all human
ills, you will be disappointed in your quest. But if you
are searching for knowledge, if you desire a better
understanding of human nature, if you are seeking for a
significant goal in living, or a better technique of attaining
the goal you have set yourself, let us encourage you to
read on. For it is our thesis that living happily is a fine
art that nearly everyone who possesses an iota of intelli¬
gence, courage, and a sense of humour can learn.
Creative Self-sculpture
The art of being a complete, and happy, human being
may be likened to a process of creative self-sculpture.
This term best describes the art of attaining poise and
satisfaction, of gaining the courageous hopefulness and
sense of freedom, the objective self-esteem that are the
essential premises of happiness. Our heritage as human
beings is the raw material of the fine art of being human.
Every man must take this rock and hew out a design for
himself. If he succeeds in this task within the time limit
set by nature, he may well consider himself a happy
human being. And success in the process of creative self¬
sculpture is open to all human beings with the exception
of those unfortunates whose cases must be described in
books devoted to the gross pathology of mind and body.
If you have read as far as this paragraph you are equipped
with adequate material and sufficient tools to make
yourself a happy and efficient human being.
There may be men and women involved in a mesh of
circumstances so inexorable that their happiness on this
earth is definitely precluded, but we have seldom seen
such a case. Hardly any human situation is irremediable,
most of the very bad ones can be ameliorated, and nearly