--- title: Feeling Happy: A Philosopher's Guide to Happiness in Life description: There is and never will be a perfect recipe for happiness canonical: https://time.com/3944883/philosopher-guide-happiness-life/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-08T11:00:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:18.407Z article:section: Ideas og:title: A Philosopher's Guide to Happiness og:description: There is and never will be a perfect recipe for happiness og:url: https://time.com/3944883/philosopher-guide-happiness-life/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1677e7c9ca3c820c/69885988f887dc838ae91380/person-jumping-building-top.jpg?branch=production&width=507&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 507 og:image:height: 285 og:image:alt: person-jumping-building-top og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Philosopher's Guide to Happiness twitter:description: There is and never will be a perfect recipe for happiness twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1677e7c9ca3c820c/69885988f887dc838ae91380/person-jumping-building-top.jpg?branch=production&width=507&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Philosopher's Guide to Happiness > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Ask the Expert: Sex is the Key to Happy Retirement [Watch (HLS stream): Ask the Expert: Sex is the Key to Happy Retirement](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DNE2aJxk.m3u8) (1:55)  _Published 2015-02-18. Studies show that a healthy and active sex life is one way to ensure a happy retirement._ by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Jul 8, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Rear view of woman jumping against cityscape Rear view of woman jumping against cityscape Getty Images by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Jul 8, 2015 11:00 AM UTC [Happiness: A Philosopher’s Guide](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612194397/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fsp%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1612194397&linkCode=as2&tag=farnamstreet-20&linkId=2BYOWL3TNLER2UNM) is worth reading. Frederic Lenoir explores what the greatest thinkers — Aristotle, Plato, Chuang Tzu, Voltaire, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Kant, and Freud — have to add to the ongoing conversation on happiness. --- > “” --- \*\*\* **On why there is no recipe for happiness**: --- > “” --- Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, shed considerable light on this point when he noted in [Civilization and Its Discontents](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393304515/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fsp%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393304515&linkCode=as2&tag=farnamstreet-20&linkId=B4BAF4222CUYWSF2): --- > “” --- \*\*\* **The origins of the word** --- > “” --- \*\*\* **The philosophical journey and the path to wisdom** --- > “” --- \*\*\* **The intellectual distrust of happiness** The essayist Pascal Bruckner offers another view: “I love life too much to wish to be permanently happy.” Indeed, there is a movement against the pursuit of happiness, which I’ve [discussed before](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2012/12/the-secret-to-happiness-the-power-of-negative-thinking/). Lenoir, however, adds to this conversation and speaks to a reason for the intellectual mistrust in happiness: vulnerability. --- > “” --- In the end, happiness is a philosophical pursuit. [Happiness: A Philosopher’s Guide](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612194397/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fsp%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1612194397&linkCode=as2&tag=farnamstreet-20&linkId=2BYOWL3TNLER2UNM) is a great place to start your inquiry. **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2015/05/lenoir-happiness-philosophers-guide/)**_._** **Join over 60,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ## Transcript Maybe you didn't save as much as you'd hoped for retirement. And perhaps you could have done a better job investing, too. And maybe you'd feel better if you could count on a bigger Social Security check. But don't despair. Even if you're not as financially prepared as you might like, there's another way you may still be able to improve your chances of living a happy retirement. Have more sex. I'm not kidding. Researched by Florida A and M professor Adrian Jackson presented last year at the [ UNKNOWN ] to Logical Society of America's annual meeting found that frequency of sexual activity among individual. Individuals 65 and older was a significant predictor of happiness, even after accounting for factors such as age, gender, health status, and one's finances. I won't get into the many details the study examined concerning sex and retirees. I'm afraid I might blush. But the relationship between sex and overall satisfaction among older people was quite clear. Based on the responses of 550 individuals, 65 and older. Researchers found that while only 32 % of those who reported no sexual activity in the last 12 months said they were very happy with life in general. Almost 38 % who engaged in sexual activity at least once or twice over the past 12 months said they were very happy, and more than 50 % who engaged in sex more than once a month said they were very happy. The association between frequency of sex and happiness also held when the study looked only at the 238 older married people in the study. Although their relationship wasn't quite as strong. That said, married people who had sex more often were also more likely to feel very good about their marriage, compared to those who had sex less frequently. Of course, this study doesn't necessarily prove that more sex leads to a happier retirement. After all, it could just be that happier retirees are more likely to have sex than those that aren't. But as long as there's even a chance that sex might lead to more retirement happiness, seems it would be a shame not to give it a try. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3944883/philosopher-guide-happiness-life/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3944883/philosopher-guide-happiness-life/"},"headline":"A Philosopher's Guide to Happiness","datePublished":"2015-07-08T11:00:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:18.407Z","description":"There is and never will be a perfect recipe for happiness","url":"https://time.com/3944883/philosopher-guide-happiness-life/","keywords":["Psychology","Life","Happiness","Happy","Mental Health/Psychology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1677e7c9ca3c820c/69885988f887dc838ae91380/person-jumping-building-top.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1677e7c9ca3c820c/69885988f887dc838ae91380/person-jumping-building-top.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"person-jumping-building-top","caption":"person-jumping-building-top","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3944883/philosopher-guide-happiness-life/","name":"A Philosopher's Guide to Happiness"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Ask the Expert: Sex is the Key to Happy Retirement","description":"Studies show that a healthy and active sex life is one way to ensure a happy retirement.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/DNE2aJxk/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-02-18T15:40:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DNE2aJxk.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3944883/philosopher-guide-happiness-life/","duration":"PT1M55S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3944883/philosopher-guide-happiness-life/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```