A pledge everyone should say which no one thinks of.

That's, in fact, a wrong deduction. Depressed people is not smarter, they also produce less and are unable to focus on tasks. That's the reason why people depressed can't work, they are in a mood that doesn't allow them to do it. If you want to help people you need to find your own happiness there. You'll need something strong that helps you when everything seems wrong and when you can find any hope. Being happy doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be flying in a cloud, it's just a mood that allows you to achieve anything you want. So, more than ever, what we need in this society is happy people with a good predisposition of helping others to be happy too.

Depression can happen to people of any level of intelligence. Intelligence and happiness are also not mutually exclusive.

Working to end suffering and create happiness is noble. Butwhy are you are placing artificial restrictions on your happiness? You say that you will never be happy unless you fulfill a very specific scenario - with a child thanking you for saving the mother's life.

Saving lives, again, is a wonderful goal. But saying that you cannot be happy before you reach that goal is unreasonable. Isn't it possible that you can make efforts toward your goal and be happy while doing so?

I don't agree. Happiness is the most important thing and all people deserve it. Happy people can also find cures for illnesses and make the world a much better place.

There is a quote by some famous author where he essentially says that one cannot truly experience life without some deep sadness, that it is something that happens to us all, it allows us to be more introspective and analyze things. One can truly appreciate what is joyful once they have felt sadness. It is existential, once you have one experience and are given insight, it allows you to give meaning to other experiences. I just thought I'd add that here...

When I'm happy, I'm training. I'll swim, then it's squats, deadlift, and lower back work. Overall about three hours. That's just one day out of the week. Right now? Even if I get to the gym I can't get under a bar, not like I should be able to. I lose about 50# just from not being able to get my head into it. My work suffers too. It's pretty tough to deal with people that are often having the worst day of their lives when I'm having a pretty bad day as well. I would much rather not have this in my life.

I agree bad moments in life make us grow and become more empathetic and hence better human beings but feeling content or even happy makes a difference in our predisposition in life to achieve goals and do things that generally add to our well being. I hope you feel at least a bit happy at times and continue helping many throughout your life :)