How to Achieve Happiness

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Recommended: What constitutes happiness

"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." -- Abraham Lincoln

According to Cambridge's Online Dictionary, happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. There are a number of attributes that correlate with happiness: relationships and social interaction, extroversion, marital status, employment, health, democratic freedom, optimism, religious involvement, income, and proximity to other happy people.

Because the concept of happiness is complex and hard to measure, many people believe that happiness is mysterious, elusive, and totally out of their control. This is not true. Actually, happiness is a choice. Each person can decide whether to be happy or not.

Wilhelm von Humboldt, a German philosopher, said, “I am...

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