Happiness. It’s something that we all want out of life, above everything else. Sure, we want things that will in turn, make us happy, but it is the thing itself we want. Among those things are love, wealth, and something that Sophocles believed was a major part of happiness. “Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness,” he once said. This is one of those philosophies that I am forced to disagree with. Who does Sophocles think he is to say that the only way you’re going to be happy is if you are smart.

You should look around you and see all of the people that are happy. Do you think that every single one of those people is intelligent? In this modern age of society, the majority of people are intelligent to a certain extent. But, looking back to Sophocles time or way before that at the beginning of mankind, the percent of intelligent people was very minimal. But, I would be led to believe that they were much happier then than people now.

If wisdom is all you need to have happiness, then why are so many people so desperate to find it? You would think that most everyone would be happy, but they’re not. A recent survey done by World Values exposed that an average of 53.8% of people are not very happy but not, not happy. They took the percentage of people from 50 countries around the world that said they were very happy, and subtracted the percentage that said they weren’t happy at all. This means that about half of the people in the world are in between happy and sad.

Referring back to a book I have recently read, Flowers for Algernon, the main character was not smart in the beginning. Most of the time though, he was happy with his life, just wanting to be normal would make him happier. Charlie was the picture perfect example of another quote, “Ignorance is bliss.” This was spoken by someone very wise indeed. In his case, when he got smart, he realized how he was not normal which is what he wanted to make him happier.

There are a lot of aspects to look at when trying to find happiness. Some people could be happy just being around someone they love. A lot of people say that the best things in life are free, which one of those things is happiness. I believe that the things you have don’t matter in your happiness. More poor families are happier than rich ones because they will always have something to wish for and have their families to support them. So, ignorance is bliss and wisdom does not mean happiness.