"...if one wants to be happy, one should not focus on trying to become happy directly, but should try to act morally, and happiness will come as a side effect." -Elliot Temple
It's not a circular argument from a religious standpoint... you could call it karma, or the Christian perspective is just that people who do good will be rewarded either through worldly things or inner peace. Doing good creates good.
More practically... within certain limits, doing good things for other people makes you feel good, but doing too much for others means neglecting yourself. The balance is in a different place for everyone.
People who live 'morally' but are nasty people anyways are probably being moral because they've been told to (by a holy book or by parents or something), and not because they really want to. They've been told by someone else that the balance should be this much, when if left to their own devices they'd put it somewhere else.
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More practically... within certain limits, doing good things for other people makes you feel good, but doing too much for others means neglecting yourself. The balance is in a different place for everyone.
People who live 'morally' but are nasty people anyways are probably being moral because they've been told to (by a holy book or by parents or something), and not because they really want to. They've been told by someone else that the balance should be this much, when if left to their own devices they'd put it somewhere else.