What actually makes a life go well? Schopenhauer answers with unsparing clarity: health, temperament, and what you are matter far more than what you have or how you seem. He weighs wealth, reputation, and pleasure against the deeper riches of a well-ordered mind. Bracing, endlessly quotable philosophy on happiness from one of the great pessimists, who turns out to be wiser about contentment than his gloomy reputation suggests. A book to argue with and remember.