Way to Happiness

Way to Happiness by Fulton J Sheen, 192 pages

In 59 short essays - none more than a few pages long - Fulton Sheen lays out the Way to Happiness with his customary wit and erudition.  In the simplest terms, his "way" - which is, of course, not really his - is to have less but to be more, to know the difference between the highest things and the lowest and to act accordingly.

A man of remarkable intelligence and education, Sheen believed, in classic American fashion now sadly out of fashion, in the ability of the average man or woman to grasp, and grapple with, the insights of the great thinkers of the past.  As such, his book is studded with references and allusions to figures from Plato to Freud, all presented and integrated in his usual accessible style.  In the same tradition, he is uncompromising in his insistence that, to find happiness, "we must go out beyond the limits of this shadowed world - to a Truth not mingled with its shadow, error - to a Life not mingled with its shadow, death - to a Love not mingled with its shadow, hate."