There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there's no reason why you shouldn't have a fairly good time. ››Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us on a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it. ››Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others. ››The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. ››To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich. ››The root of joy is gratefulness… It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful. ››Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted. ››A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. ››A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness. ››Pierre was right when he said that one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and I now believe in it. Let the dead bury the dead, but while I'm alive, I must live and be happy. ››Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here. ››He soon felt that the fulfillment of his desires gave him only one grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected. This fulfillment showed him the eternal error men make in imagining that their happiness depends on the realization of their desires. ››The Master said, 'To study, and then in a timely fashion to practice what you have learned — is this not satisfying? To have companions arrive from afar — is this not a joy? To remain unrecognized by others and yet remain free of resentment — is this not the mark of the gentleman?' ››Happiest is he who expects no happiness from others. Love delights and glorifies in giving, not receiving. So learn to love and give, and not to expect anything from others. ››The trick is not how much pain you feel - but how much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses. ››My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations. ››People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road does not mean they are lost. ››We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. ››The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. ››Give a man health and a course to steer, and he'll never stop to trouble about whether he's happy or not. ››Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness. ››I've begun to think of myself as 'independently wealthy' because I realize that I carry within myself most of what I need to make me happy. ››Success can also cause misery. The trick is not to be surprised when you discover it doesn't bring you all the happiness and answers you thought it would. ››Even injustice has it's good points. It gives me the challenge of being as happy as I can in an unfair world. ››Life is indeed difficult, partly because of the real difficulties we must overcome in order to survive, and partly because of our own innate desire to always do better, to overcome new challenges, to self-actualize. Happiness is experienced largely in striving towards a goal, not in having attained things, because our nature is always to want to go on to the next endeavor. ››Too many people are unaware that it is not outer events or circumstances that will create happiness; rather, it is our perception of events and of ourselves that will create, or uncreate, positive emotions. ››You can figure out by sheer logic that if you were only - and I mean only - to stay with your desires and preferences, and if you were never - and I mean never - to stray into unrealistic demands that your desires have to be fulfilled, you could very rarely disturb, really disturb, yourself about anything. Why? Because your preferences start off with, 'I would very much like or prefer to have success, approval, or comfort,' and then end with the conclusion, 'But I don't have to have it. I won't die without it. And I could be happy (though not as happy) without it.' ››You mainly make yourself needlessly and neurotically miserable by strongly holding absolutist irrational Beliefs (iBs), especially by rigidly believing unconditional shoulds, oughts, and musts. ››
