From English Wikipedia – Joy

C. S. Lewis saw a clear distinction between joy, pleasure, and happiness: “I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy”, and “I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again… I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and Pleasure often is.”

Michela Summa says that the distinction between joy and happiness is that, “Joy accompanies the process through and through, whereas happiness seems to be more strictly tied to the moment of achievement of the process… joy is not only a direct emotional response to an event that is embedded in our life-concerns but is also tightly bound to the present moment, whereas happiness presupposes an evaluative stance concerning one period of one’s life or one’s own life as a whole.”

When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” – Gautama Buddha

Arianna Huffington an advocate for the things that instigate joy, studied ways that joy can be triggered. In her research, she determined that joy is produced by positive responses that certain neurochemicals in the brain produce during stimulating activities, such as dopamine. According to Huffington, activities that are able to evoke a positive neurochemical response are producers of joy.

Ingrid Fetell Lee has studied the sources of joy. She wrote the book “Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness”, and gave a TED talk on the subject, titled “Where joy hides and how to find it.

The following is paraphrased from German Wikipedia

For the Greek philosopher Epicurus (c. 341 BC), joy is a central goal of human life.

The Bible mentions joy over 300 times. Joy in God is seen as a source of strength with which one can maintain one’s inner balance even in unpleasant situations. Paul refers to joy as the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

In Buddhism, self-knowledge and mindful, right living are seen as important for a spiritual state of joy, with co-joy occupying a special place.

Friedrich Schiller sees joy as a divine principle, the driving force of life, to which we have a nature-given access.

Erich Fromm sees joy as the feeling one experiences on the way to self-realization.