The truth is, bad things don't affect us as profoundly as we expect them to. That's true of good things, too. We adapt very quickly to either.

People are drastically overconfident about their judgments of others.

We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.

The brain and the eye may have a contractual relationship in which the brain has agreed to believe what the eye sees, but in return the eye has agreed to look for what the brain wants.

People are happiest when they're trying to achieve goals that are difficult but not out of reach.

People want to be happy, and all the other things they want are typically meant to be a means to that end.

The good news is that going blind is not going to make you as unhappy as you think it will. The bad news is that winning the lottery will not make you as happy as you expect.

Our brain accepts what the eyes see and our eye looks for whatever our brain wants.

The secret of happiness is variety, but the secret of variety, like the secret of all spices, is knowing when to use it.

We treat our future selves as though they were our children, spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy

Happiness refers to feelings, virtue refers to actions, and those actions can cause those feelings. But not necessarily and not exclusively.

Jazz came to America 300 years ago in chains.

We have 200, 000 kids a year who drop out of the French school system and have no hope. They become a drag on society.

Architecture is basically the design of interiors, the art of organizing interior space.

I think people should look at learning about Native American history the same as visiting Washington, D.C., and seeing the monuments there. It's all part of the package.

Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living.

You have to be kind of sensitive to be in rock and roll.

Eternity is not ever-lasting time but the real, unfading, indestructible, and timeless Present, for, as Schroedinger said, the present is the only thing that has no end.

I really cannot know whether I am or am not the Genius you are pleased to call me, but I am very willing to put up with the mistake, if it be one.

The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future.

Sometimes discipline, which means "to teach," is confused with criticism.