One study found that people who just thought about watching their favorite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27 percent.

Laziness is built deep into our nature.

you know you have made a theoretical advance when you can no longer reconstruct why you failed for so long to see the obvious.

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.

After a crisis we tell ourselves we understand why it happened and maintain the illusion that the world is understandable. In fact, we should accept the world is incomprehensible much of the time.

So your emotional state really has a lot to do with what you're thinking about and what you're paying attention to.

We can't live in a state of perpetual doubt, so we make up the best story possible and we live as if the story were true.