Woven from pure emotion.- Le Journal du Dimanche is a hugely entertaining argument that traces the pursuit of happiness through the French and American revolutions and concludes that we should all relax because it is only through peace of mind that true happiness is found.-Bruce Elder, Sydney Morning Herald brilliant book. Review Quotes Perpetual Euphoria is a beautiful essay.

A stimulating and entertaining meditation on the unhappiness at the heart of the modern cult of happiness, Perpetual Euphoria is a book for everyone who has ever bristled at the command to be happy. Much better, Bruckner argues, would be to accept that happiness is an unbidden and fragile gift that arrives only by grace and luck.

Gripped by the twin illusions that we are responsible for being happy or unhappy and that happiness can be produced by effort, many of us are now martyring ourselves-sacrificing our time, fortunes, health, and peace of mind-in the hope of entering an earthly paradise. How has a liberating principle of the Enlightenment-the right to pursue happiness-be the unavoidable and burdensome responsibility to be happy? How did we be unhappy about not being happy-and what might we do to escape this predicament? In Perpetual Euphoria, Pascal Bruckner takes up these questions with all his unconventional wit, force, and brilliance, arguing that we might be happier if we simply abandoned our mad pursuit of happiness.

Happiness has be a religion-one whose smiley-faced god looks down in rebuke upon everyone who hasnt yet attained the blessed state of perpetual euphoria. Book Synopsis How happiness became mandatory-and why we should reject the demand to be happy Happiness today is not just a possibility or an option but a requirement and a duty.

The Tyranny of Guilt by Pascal Bruckner