Psychologists call this habituation, economists call it declining marginal utility, and the rest of us call it marriage.

My friends tell me that I have a tendency to point out problems without offering solutions, but they never tell me what I should do about it.

I actually think the same things do make most people happy. The differences are extremely small, and around the margins. You like peach ice cream; I like strawberry ice cream. Both of us like ice cream much better than a smack on the head with two-by-four.

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

Alas, we think of ourselves as unique entities-minds unlike any others-and thus we often reject the lessons that the emotional experience of others has to teach us.

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

Humans react to danger when it is immediate, immoral, visible... Global warming does not press any of those buttons.