The pursuit of happiness

When Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues signed the Declaration of Independence and declared that we have a fundamental right to “the pursuit of happiness,” they were not thinking about “yellow smiley faces, self-esteem or even feelings,” says Jon Meacham, writing in the July 8-15 issue of Time magazine.

Instead, they were thinking about the “good of the whole”—because, Meacham says, the good of the whole “was crucial to the genuine well-being of the individual.” They had in mind eudaimonia—the Greek word for happiness—which “evokes virtue, good conduct and generous citizenship.”