Dumb, naive and happy or Intelligent, strong willed and un-happy.
2007-07-12 10:22:43 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I like your question, but the traits you mention are not set in stone. A dumb person can try to become more intelligent. A naive person can become wiser to the ways of the world and less gullible. Even happiness is a transitory state. As Eleanor Roosevelt reminded us "Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product." It is also nothing without it's contrast to give it meaning.
Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happiness" could lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
— Carl Jung
Truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold . . . For there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable anymore.
— Herman Melville (Moby Dick, p. 86)
If we disregard semantics and assume you are referring to someone being generally of low IQ, and overall an optimistic person, we can disregard the above issues.
What you're essentially asking is, is it better to be a believer or a skeptic? Your question is clever one. If you were asking it of someone dumb, naive and happy, the answer would be obvious. But if you were asking someone to forgo their intelligence for happiness that is an impossibility. Once you have tasted the benefits of rational thinking and the power of logic, there is no turning back, especially for someone strong-willed. As Oliver Wendell Holmes so aptly stated: "Man’s mind, stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimension."
The believer is happy; the doubter is wise.
— Hungarian proverb
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
— George Bernard Shaw, (1856-1950)
Do you, good people, believe that Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden and that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge? I do. The church has always been afraid of that tree. It still is afraid of knowledge. Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey. I believe in the brain of man. I'm not worried about my soul.
— Clarence Darrow; (1857-1938)
Men become civilized not in proportion to their willingness to believe but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
— H. L. Mencken
All thinking men are atheists.
— Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed, but to those who have differed.
— Charles Caleb Colton, (1780-1832)
Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration- courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth.
— H.L. Mencken, (1925)
A believer is a bird in a cage, a free-thinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing.
— Robert G. Ingersoll
2007-07-12 17:47:54 · answer #1 · answered by HawaiianBrian 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
why do people associate lack of knowledge and lack of strength of spirit with happiness? its not one or the other, you can be intelligent, strong willed, and happy, and yet at the same time recognize you still have alot to learn, your happiness in the long run will come from curtailing your will in some cases, so you can blend with others
ps: and if your happy, your not dumb, you have found your own personal way to be, so your very smart in a sense
2007-07-12 10:35:14 · answer #2 · answered by dlin333 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Intelligent, strong willed and un-happy. Well, two out of three isn't bad.
2007-07-12 10:47:42 · answer #3 · answered by jsardi56 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Intelligence makes me happy, and being strong-willed is useful as well. With these I am happy.
2007-07-12 15:27:21 · answer #4 · answered by Faedra 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
used to be dumb, naive and happy. now, a little dumb, a little naive, not too strong willed but happy. happiness cannot be measured of what you really are as a person but of what you have contributed of your time and of yourself to others. shalom!
2007-07-12 10:29:21 · answer #5 · answered by Lola 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Intelligent, strong willed and un-happy.
truth seekers and brilliant people, with a bit of optimism shouldnt be unhappy. they're smart enough to know what makes them happy and stong willed enough to get it.
2007-07-12 10:44:48 · answer #6 · answered by candi b 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Hmmm, I would say dumb, naive and happy. Happiness is what matters most. lol
2007-07-12 10:33:38 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a long life and a happy person has it all over the unhappy one!
2007-07-12 10:35:21 · answer #8 · answered by sailorboy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've always asked myself that question, to be stupid and happy, or smart and unhappy.
Keeping in mind that both live the same life, the only difference being the stupid people are to stupid to realize how crappy life is, and the smart too smart for their own good.
Both live a crappy life, but only one who realizes it. I opt for smarts as they are the only ones who have a chance for change.
2007-07-12 10:33:55 · answer #9 · answered by Ashamed2beHuman 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I wanna be a bubble headed bleach blonde. I need a brain washing. or a trasfusion or something IT"S KIILIN ME.
Ok not really. Bliss simply doesn't compair.
2007-07-12 10:42:14 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋