To gain control over the quality of experience, one needs to learn how to build enjoyment into what happens day in, day out.

It is not the skills we actually have that determine how we feel but the ones we think we have.

Purpose provides activation energy for living.

The solution is to gradually become free of societal rewards and learn how to substitute for them rewards that are under one's own powers. This is not to say that we should abandon every goal endorsed by society; rather, it means that, in addition to or instead of the goals others use to bribe us with, we develop a set of our own.

Our jobs determine to a large extent what our lives are like. Is what you do for a living making you ill? Does it keep you from becoming a more fully realized person? Do you feel ashamed of what you have to do at work? All too often, the answer to such questions is yes. Yet it does not have to be like that. Work can be one of the most joyful, most fulfilling aspects of life. Whether it will be or not depends on the actions we collectively take.

One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself.

Entropy is the normal state of consciousness - a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable.