Don’t seek happiness(;?) seek meaning.

[Odessa Dawn]

1. Happiness depends on the inward conditions not on the external things.
2. Don’t seek happiness (;?) seek meaning.
3. Don’t impress people with your money and/or position, but with your character.

Are those sentences correct English?

 

[bhaisahab]

Delete the two definite articles in 1. Use the semi-colon in 2.

 

[agreva3]

I would agree that we should take out "the" from Sentence 1.



I find that Sentence 2 has some flexibility.

If we are talking about writing in an academic context or anywhere with people who are aware of formal writing, the semi-colon should be used.

It seems, though, that many native English speakers do not understand the semi-colon, so seeing it can be taken as pretentious. In this case, it seems common to just use a comma. Formal and academic writers would probably call this a "comma splice," but it still seems common nonetheless.



Sentence 3 seems fine, but it might be criticized for not reading smoothly (i.e., "clumsy") because of the "and/or." Maybe this could be a possible resolution:

(3) Don't impress people with money or position, but with your character.