My Own Good, Profit and Pleasure

"Every man, whatsoever his condition, desires to be happy. There is no man who does not desire this, and each one desires it with such earnestness that he prefers it to all other things; whoever, in fact desires other things, desires them for this end alone."

"He who is good is therefore good that he may be happy; and he who is evil would not be so, if he despaired of the possibility of being happy by that means."

"But to know where to find this thing desired of all; that is disputed among them, that divides them."

"In my opinion you will not be happy if you are unable to possess what you love, be that what it may; nor can you be happy if you do not love what you have, be it ever so good; nor even if you are able to have what you love, if it be harmful to you. For if you desire what you cannot have, you are tormented; if you acquire what you do not want, you are deceived; if you do not desire what should be acquired, you are not mentally sound."

"He, therefore, who inquires how he may attain a happy life, is surely inquiring after nothing else but this: Where is the Supreme Good? In other words, in what does man's Supreme Good reside, not according to the perverse and hasty opinions of men, but according to sure and immovable truth?"

"What now remains but God himself in whom resides man's highest good?"

"I say, therefore, that he is happy who possesses God."

quotes are St. Augustine, taken from Augustine on Prayer, by Thomas A. Hand



This is exactly the understanding that Jonathan Edwards had in mind when he made the first (and most misunderstood) of his famous resolutions:

"Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God' s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence."

He resolved to seek his own happiness, by seeking the highest good, which is God.