People are really happier with friends than they are with their families or their spouse or their child.

I'm not a great believer in self-help.

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.

When people think of the outcomes of their decisions, they think much more short term than that. They think in terms of gains and losses.

I don't try to be clever at all. The idea that I could see what no one else can is an illusion.

Human beings cannot comprehend very large or very small numbers. It would be useful for us to acknowledge that fact.

The experiencing self lives in the moment; it is the one that answers the question, 'Does it hurt?' or 'What were you thinking about just now?' The remembering self is the one that answers questions about the overall evaluation of episodes or periods of one's life, such as a stay in the hospital or the years since one left college.