What more recent philosophers think about happiness?
Friedrich Nietzsche believed that any worthwhile achievements in life come from the experience of overcoming hardship, and that a comfortable, painless existence wouldn't be worth living. Happiness comes not from escaping trouble, but from cultivating them. In short, he believed in “no pain, no gain”.
Arthur Schopenhauer had an interesting view on happiness. He was such an extreme pessimist that he thought we live in the worst of all possible worlds and happiness is an illusion. “Life oscillates like a pendulum, back and forth between the pain and boredom” Therefore it is likely that Schopenhauer considered pessimism as a way to happiness.
Jeremy Bentham is best known as the founder of Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall utility in maximizing happiness or pleasure as summed among all people. Basically this philosophy is an extension of hedonism, but moves beyond the scope of one's own interests and takes into account the interests of others.
The philosophy...
"Create all the happiness you are able to create remove all the misery you are able to remove" – Jeremy Bentham
"
“He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life" -. Nicomachean Ethics