We don't see very far in the future, we are very focused on one idea at a time, one problem at a time, and all these are incompatible with rationality as economic theory assumes it.

Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well...Writing about why the positive events in your life happened may seem awkward at first, but please stick with it for one week. It will get easier. The odds are that you will be less depressed, happier, and addicted to this exercise six months from now.

Through some combination of culture and biology, our minds are intuitively receptive to religion.

In essence, the optimistic style involves taking credit for successes but little blame for failures.

The idea that the future is unpredictable is undermined every day by the ease with which the past is explained.

If there was one ubiquitous recommendation about marriage it was this: "Don't go to bed angry."

You know, the standard state for people is 'mildly pleasant.' Negative emotions are quite rare, and extremely positive emotions are rare. But people are mildly pleased most of the time, they're mildly tired a lot of the time, and they wish they were somewhere else a substantial part of the time - but mostly they're mildly pleased.