If someone offered you a pill that would make you permanently happy, you would be well advised to run fast and run far. Emotion is a compass that tells us what to do, and a compass that perpetually stuck on north is worthless.
Daniel GilbertWhy isnโt it fun to watch a videotape of last nightโs football game even when we donโt know who won? Because the fact that the game has already been played precludes the possibility that our cheering will somehow penetrate the television, travel through the cable system, find its way to the stadium, and influence the trajectory of the ball as it hurtles toward the goalposts!
Daniel GilbertThe fact that we often judge the pleasure of an experience by its ending can cause us to make some curious choices.
Daniel GilbertHumans react to danger when it is immediate, immoral, visible... Global warming does not press any of those buttons.
Daniel GilbertWhen we have an experience -- hearing a particular sonata, making love with a particular person, watching the sun set from a particular window of a particular room -- on successive occasions, we quickly begin to adapt to it, and the experience yields less pleasure each time. Psychologists call this habituation, economists call it declining marginal utility, and the rest of us call it marriage
Daniel Gilbert