Happy Mind: The Philosophy and Science of Happiness

Image © Eldan.

 

"The human brain has evolved to ensure that our firefighting negative emotions will trump the broadening, building, and abiding - but more fragile - positive emotions." Martin Seligman

 

"Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation?" Jane Austen (Persuasion)

 

"If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years." Bertrand Russell

 

"I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves." Ludwig Wittgenstein

 

"A man's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes." Arthur Schopenhauer 

 

"I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure." John D. Rockefeller

 

"Our economy is rapidly changing from a money economy to a satisfaction economy." Martin Seligman

 

"The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things."  Epictetus 

 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain