Hello, friends! Perhaps you know the expression “The one who is happy, that’s the one who is right.” by Leo Tolstoy. It points to happiness as a criterion of correctness of a decision made or a chosen path.

Memorizing this expression will help us not only to trace our state as an indicator of our rightness in something, but also on the rightness of the person whose example we decided to follow. After all, following the unhappy will not make us happy. And there can be no truth in such a path either.

But since, in my opinion, the whole world is made up of paradoxes, here’s another one. There’s an expression in psychology, “Do you want to be happy, or do you want to be right?” Indicating the need to choose between being happy or being proven right. At first glance there may seem to be an obvious contradiction between the first and second expression. But there isn’t, that’s the paradox. Let me explain.

We are subjectively happy when those with whom we communicate share our views on the world, which means they have the same beliefs. But it happens more often that we meet on our life path people whose point of view differs from ours. And what tends to happen at that point? That’s right, we start proving ourselves right, getting angry and not understanding how it is possible not to accept what we are talking about. The flame of anger grows inside and naturally such a state cannot be called happy. It is almost impossible to prove anything to anyone, and we just torment ourselves and our opponent.

By the grace of God, in such a situation, you are able to remember the very second phrase, which will serve us as a reasonable choice – “Do you want to be happy, or do you want to be right?”. Stop and calm down or angrily continue to prove your position. Allow your opponent to stay with their opinion or in anger not to accept it.

By choosing to stop arguing, you are choosing to be happy in return for proving your point. And this indicates the truth of your point of view. Then the expression “The one who is happy, that’s the one who is right.” is true.