Drinks on the deck at sunset.
Identity & self
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
161 answers answered between 1999 and 2026 one of 5 in The Proust Questionnaire
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
Verbatim recurring item in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire; two publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
On the record
Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.
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Being at one with yourself.
Being at peace with God.
Perfect happiness is having a wife who loves you and doesn’t ask for too much jewelry.
Spending time with my family—with no phone, no fax, and no meetings.
It’s never going to be absolutely perfect. There will always be something you would change if you could.
Waking up in the morning.
A fireplace, a book, and a snowy day, with no possibility of getting into the office.
Being with those that I love, and they have no problems.
When the coffee kicks in early in the morning and I’m on the couch with my dogs, reading the paper.
Being totally present and at peace in the moment—and knowing that my children and grandchildren are all right.
Watching my wife and children eat.
To be wildly, desperately, carelessly, nakedly in love, of course. Crazy, obsessive love: brooding, baying at the moon, writing daily missives to the adored. Who wouldn’t want this? Even though the crash is painful.
A verdant landscape filled with beautiful animals of all kinds, harp music, cumulus clouds in a bright-blue sky, and happy people conversing pleasantly, sipping cold sake from homemade bamboo cups.
Warren Buffett
Chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, 1970–2025
The reaction of my family and me to our extraordinary good fortune is not guilt, but rather gratitude. Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others.
Recorded
His own pledge letter, written on joining the Giving Pledge in 2010, The Giving Pledge, 2010
source ↗
The absence of fear, and the recognition that we are all on this ship of fools together. We may in fact go to the big ship’s Art Deco bar and have a glass of champagne, toasting our foibles.
First of all, to be in love. The second way of being very happy is to be able to get the best out of yourself, whatever it is.
I think you can strive to attain it, but be realistic about the outcome. In the meantime, I find I might be experiencing it through flashes or brief moments in love and art, and at times just being alive.
Yogi Berra
Baseball catcher and manager; ten-time World Series winner with the New York Yankees
To relax without being bothered.
Being in love while organizing my closet.
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