The mistakes we make when we try to imagine our personal futures are also lawful, regular, and systematic. They, too, have a pattern that tells us about the powers and limits of foresight in much the same way that optical illusions tell us about the powers and limits of eyesight.

The data says that with the poor, a little money can buy a lot of happiness. If you're rich, a lot of money can buy you a little more happiness. But in both cases, money does it.

Our inability to recall how we really felt is why our wealth of experiences turns out to be poverty of riches.

Why isn’t it fun to watch a videotape of last night’s football game even when we don’t 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!

Impact is rewarding. Mattering makes us happy.

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

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