Happiness Is a Moral Obligation By Dennis Prager

For much of my life, I, like most people, regarded the pursuit of happiness as largely a selfish pursuit. One of the great revelations of middle age has been that happiness, far from being only a selfish pursuit, is a moral demand.
When we think of character traits we rightly think of honesty, integrity, moral courage, and acts of altruism. Few people include happiness in any list of character traits or moral achievements.

U.S. actor Will Smith gestures during a news conference for his film 'The Pursuit of Happyness' in Tokyo January 19, 2007. The film opens in Japan on January 27. REUTERS/Kiyoshi Ota (JAPAN) But happiness is both.
Happiness -- or at least acting happy, or at the very least not inflicting one's unhappiness on others -- is no less important in making the world better than any other human trait.
With some exceptions, happy people make the world better and unhappy people make it worse. This is true on the personal (micro) and global (macro) planes.

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