We are far too willing to reject the belief that much of what we see in life is random.

Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.

The concept of happiness has to be reorganised.

It is only a slight exaggeration to say that happiness is the experience of spending time with people you love and who love you.

I have always believed that scientific research is another domain where a form of optimism is essential to success: I have yet to meet a successful scientist who lacks the ability to exaggerate the importance of what he or she is doing, and I believe that someone who lacks a delusional sense of significance will wilt in the face of repeated experiences of multiple small failures and rare successes, the fate of most researchers.

The psychologist, Paul Rozin, an expert on disgust, observed that a single cockroach will completely wreck the appeal of a bowl of cherries, but a cherry will do nothing at all for a bowl of cockroaches.

Experienced happiness refers to your feelings, to how happy you are as you live your life. In contrast, the satisfaction of the remembering self refers to your feelings when you think about your life.