>>34588372
It's not too late for those things, but a relationship and children also aren't capable if giving you happiness. Any happiness that comes from something external to you is a counterfeit, because any happiness that can be taken away is actually just misery and tragedy laying in wait. Additionally, it would be more responsible for you to find happiness and then have a wife and children afterwards, so that you can be a pillar of strength and positivity for your wife and an instructor in the art of living well towards your children. If you're expecting others to fulfill you, then that implies that you have no happiness of your own to offer them.

>>34588403
You're right. Thanks.

>>34588414
No problem, anon. I hope you reach a state of genuine and lasting happiness.

>>34588403
>>34588431
there's some good points in here but also some bs. contentment can be derived from feeling valued/needed which is something you can get from relationships/kids. also
>state of genuine and lasting happiness
not really a thing either. existence is mostly mundane with sparks of elation, which, again, can be obtained from relationships (in general, not just romantic). we just hope to get as many of those moments as we can. but it is correct that overall contentment comes from inside out

>>34588746
Abiding happiness absolutely does exist. It comes in the form of virtues such as patience, selflessness, calmness, justice through impartiality and the love of truth for truth's sake. Happiness has nothing to do with elation or any other emotion, and any happiness that depended upon an emotional state would just be depression in disguise, ready to reveal itself as soon as the emotional high has ended. That's why a relationship can't bring happiness, because relationships fluctuate while happiness can't. Happiness must be a constant based on the value of your own moral character. If you base your happiness and wellbeing on external ideas of you being valued by your family, you're only setting yourself up for a miserable realization when it comes to a point where your family no longer needs you. Telling yourself that that will never happen just delays the inevitable, because it eventually must, and it would also reveal that your intentions were selfish all along, because somebody who truly loved his family for their own sake rather than his own sake would be pleased to see them prosper without his help.

>>34588833
>Happiness must be a constant based on the value of your own moral character.
Retarded satanic narcissistic advice.

>>34588989
Moral character is based on your love for goodness itself. If you only loved the veneer of morality for pride's sake, that would put you in the negative and destroy your moral character. If you're a Christian, goodness is synonymous with God and the advice still applies. In fact, this exact advice is given by the desert fathers several dozen times throughout the Philokalia. I doubt you are a Christian, though, otherwise you wouldn't be prone to kneejerk reactions and uncharitable assumptions.

>>34588372
it's over

>>34589124
Why do you rely on God for happiness?

>>34589209
Because your relationship with goodness is the one thing you get to control in life. If you genuinely and truly love honesty, mercy, generosity, wisdom, compassion and justice for their own sake, or in other words love God for his own sake, then nothing can separate you from what you love, since it's always within your power to choose those virtues even under the threat of death, and you can always take solace in knowing you acted in accordance with them. Someone who loves wealth, comfort, status or pleasure, on the other hand, is guaranteed to become miserable at some point in his life because he will inevitably be deprived of those things without his consent, and he will have nothing to take solace in. It should also be noted that it's only possible to love another person through goodness, or God, because love without mercy, wisdom, generosity and compassion can't be called love at all, but would actually be a selfish infatuation based on what that person can do for you, rather than the desire to do for them.

>>34588403
It's not true for everyone. This advice is harmful to a lot of people. Imagine being broke, having no relationships, no girls to date, etc. You won't be happy unless you're a very atypical person. Your happiness is tied to things outside of yourself. We are not automatons. You can find happiness in things outside of yourself before finding it within. Especially true if you've had bad relationships, traumas, etc, you need some good experiences to feel different. Or maybe not who knows