We treat our future selves as though they were our children, spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy

No one likes to be criticized, of course, but if the things we successfully strive for do not make our future selves happy, or if the things we unsuccessfully avoid do, then it seems reasonable (if somewhat ungracious) for them to cast a disparaging glance backward and wonder what the hell we were thinking.

If you are like most people, then like most people, you don't know you're like most people.

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

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.

We humans can look deep into future and predict what will happen, but then turn around and do nothing about it.

Most of us appear to believe that we are more athletic, intelligent, organized, ethical, logical, interesting, open-minded, and healthy-not to mention more attractive-than the average person.