A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe.

The task is to learn how to enjoy everyday life without diminishing other people's chances to enjoy theirs.

To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself. She has to develop the ability to find enjoyment and purpose regardless of external circumstances.

Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives...most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity...when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

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 hearing that improves life, but the listening.

It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly.