Competition is an easy way to get into flow.

Pain and pleasure occur in consciousness and exist only there

Discipline is not always internalized and actually can breed resentment among children.

Attention is psychic energy, and like physical energy, unless we allocate some part of it to the task at hand, no work gets done.

When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

What I "discovered" was that happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.

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