“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings” (thank you Mo)
A few wise word from Epicurus on Happiness:
The 3 key steps to achieving happiness:
Friends
Friends are a major source of happiness, but Epicurus believed you need to see your friends on a consistent basis. Not just casually, but as much as possible. In fact, he believed that you should live with or in close quarters to your friends. It’s interesting to note that with Social Networks like Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr we’re never really alone. And yet, even with all of this social interaction, nothing can replace the intimacy that is achieved through seeing your friends in real life.
Freedom
This means both Financial and Political independence. True Freedom is the ability to “Stand up for the courage of your own convictions”, without having to worry about the opinions of your boss or peers, and without being driven by finanacial motivations. It’s living a life free of coercion or unaccepted duty. Self-sufficient.
An Examined Life
The ability to take time for self reflection. We need time and space to analyze the worries and anxieties of our life.
– We can all find happiness, but we often look for them in the wrong places
– What we want is not particularly what we need
– We don’t always understand what we really need, rather depending on manic desires
– Anxiety quickly disappears if we give time to think through
– Reflect on your worries and analyze what is troubling you
– Take step back from noisy distractions of commercial world to find time and space for quiet thinking in our lives
– We need consistent reminding to not lose sight of our true desires
– The more we can limit our pleasures and desires, especially to those that are the most necessary and most natural, the more likely we are to attain sustainable pleasure and happiness
hilitehead 
elaborate?