Peace and happiness are complementary to each other. Peace definitely precedes happiness.

But happiness is more of attitudinal and behavioral, and less of external and other factors. Peace is more of external and other factors.

Peace and happiness are complementary to each other. Peace definitely precedes happiness.

But happiness is more of attitudinal and behavioral, and less of external and other factors. Peace is more of external and other factors.

Aristotle recognized happiness as an activity: that activity which enables the individual to realize his areté, the individual virtue that defines him.  See the Nicomachean Ethics. Does achievement of this goal necessarily bring peace? It may actually spur the individual to further activity.  Therefore, my readings-- and personal experience-- instruct me that happiness and peace do not necessarily bear any relationship to one another whatsoever.  Peace is a state of mind; happiness, an activity.  Take the example of the warrior, always happy when seeking new conflicts.  Or take the example of the mystic, always happy when striving for new depths of enlightenment.  As a Westerner, I find the image of the Faustian man truer than that of the contemplator of one's own navel. Yet, as the possessor of a restless mind, I recognize that I may be mistaken.

Peace comes from inner self and is an influential element of happiness. Peace is said to be a gift of divine power that lead to freedom from obsession. Happiness is a by-product and can’t be pursued it by itself.

My view about this is the same as Subhash, they are conected, if you have happiness, you have peace.

Dear Neslon,

I´ve some problems with you definition of happiness as an activity. I always understood happiness as an emotional and mental state, quite undefined generally but a status of the soul and thinking. To start the discussion and argumentations  I append a wiki URL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness

Upto me peace is a state of mind, while happiness is an expression of sensual gratification.

Peace is positive, while happiness can also be a result of negative.

Dear Professor @Mitra, you have got reasonable answers that distinguish between happiness and peace; I think that happiness is a consequence of peace, and happiness can not be reached without peace.

Peace can mean a harmony between contraries: in the political sense it can signify a dynamic equilibrium between potential opponents, a state which keeps them operating in harmony.  This is the balance of powers so essential for the internal and external peace of a nation (Montesquieu).  In this respect (as well as in the Aristotelian one I invoked above), peace may have nothing to do with happiness.  However, it can work to promote happiness. 

Hanno,

The conception of happiness as an activity is not mine, but has a long tradition extending from the Greeks to contemporary Europe (e.g, Ortega y Gasset, "Prologue to a Treatise on Hunting," translated by Howard Wescott).  The most peaceful place on earth is a cemetery-- absence of all activity--.  The happiest man alive is an active man (physically, intellectually, or affectively, and preferably all three).  Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno yearned for an active afterlife, and salvation as an endless approach to God.  He said he preferred a kind of active Purgatory  to a static Heaven.

I think that, there is several reasons for happiness, including the peace. May be a human is unhappy in spite of peace, due to many reasons such as illness, poverty and of other reasons.

I believe that, happiness is a relative measure and the conviction is the main reason that achieves happiness.

I wish happiness to all the inhabitants of the land.

Dear all

 I think happiness and peace both are mental state. Someone is not disturbed by good-thing or bad-thing. His mind keeps a quiet and calm state—peace state. The state can go on for a long time. Happiness is an excited state. Good-thing exhilarated him and his cerebra releases a kind chemical stimulating substances into the blood. The chemical stimulating substances are metabolized, the state will disappear.

There is no boundary line between happiness and peace! There are happy person although they do not have peace. And there are unhappy person although they have peace!

In peaceful societies people have difficulty to be happy, whereas in some areas that may be in turmoil people may be happy more easily.     

Dear Nelson,

I agree with your remarks to the historical thoughts. But the "cemetry" as a place of peace provokes my contradiction. Inhabitants of a cemetry don´t have peace, the have quiet, total silence. Because they can´t feel anything more, they can not witness peace. And the people visiting their friends in the cemetry often are dreadfully excited, hurt and sad. There is no peace at all in their minds.

And you are right, active people can undergo happiness, but this is a possible result of activity, not the activity itself. I know situations and people who gain happiness without any visible activity.

Oh yes, Hanno, you and I concur more than you know.  "Visible" activity is not necessary for happiness. But there is such a thing as active contemplation-- reflection so deep, that it keeps the mind and spirit in movement--.  When we contemplate a finite object, our mind moves from aspect to aspect absorbing all the properties of that object. Imagine, however, an infinite Object like God, Who during mystic visions or in the Afterlife reveals to our inquiring yet astonished gaze different aspects of Himself in an ongoing process.  The bliss of active discovery through contemplation describes the happiness sought by saints. Yet, if mystic contemplation were not active, it would not be universally described as a kind of flight.

Dear

People feel happy because there are some chemical which is released by his brain in their blood.Drugs also have pleasant effects. Methamphetamine can make one feel very happy, eager, or enthusiastic heavily

The chemical which makes people feel happy or excites people is different from the chemical which makes people feel calm(tranquillizer).

Happiness is a state of contentment that is often conditional and subjected to change. On the other hand, Peace is a state of inner calm that the individual achieves which is not subjected to change.

There is a boundary between dream and reality, which may have an impact on happiness and peace.

In my opinion it is not feasible to reach a happiness in the the environment wothout a peace

To me, there is peace, there is happiness. 

Leo Tolstoy 

“They say: sufferings are misfortunes," said Pierre. 'But if at once this minute, I was asked, would I remain what I was before I was taken prisoner, or go through it all again, I should say, for God's sake let me rather be a prisoner and eat horseflesh again. We imagine that as soon as we are torn out of our habitual path all is over, but it is only the beginning of something new and good. As long as there is life, there is happiness. There is a great deal, a great deal before us.”

― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/305772-they-say-sufferings-are-misfortunes-said-pierre-but-if-at

Dears

I agree with the opinion of Costas Drossos that there is no boundary line between happiness and peace.

Regards