One of the things that surprised me the most is how often we assume that because something's fun for someone else, it makes somebody else happy, it will make us happy.

What's fun for other people may not be fun for you- and vice versa.

I can build a happy life only on the foundation of my own nature.

The absence of feeling bad isn't enough to make you happy; you must strive to find sources of feeling good

To eke out the most happiness from an experience, we must anticipate it, savor it as it unfolds, express happiness, and recall a happy memory.

I enjoy the fun of failure. It's fun to fail, I kept repeating. It's part of being ambitious; it's part of being creative. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly

We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period.