“The Ancient Greeks named four virtues: temperance, wisdom, courage and justice. Aristotle added more, but cheerfulness wasn’t one of them. The Greek philosophers didn’t seem to care about how we felt compared with how we acted. Aristotle said that we would ideally feel good while acting good, but he didn’t consider pleasure necessary for beautiful action.” Mariana Alessandri: Against Cheerfulness. “Practising the Greek virtues of wisdom and courage is one thing. But being cheerful the American way borders on psychosis.” (If that’s true, I could be the most sane person alive.)

+ “People from all over France came to the hospital to receive wine treatments, which were exactly what they sound like: up to two bottles a day of wine to treat various ailments.” BBC: France’s Fascinating Wine Treatment. (Next, you’re gonna tell me people are smoking weed for medical purposes…)