Whatever the flows of our modern times are the idea is that you can create something new out of nothing.

By the duty to be happy, I thus refer to the ideology... that urges us to evaluate everything in terms of pleasure and displeasure...on the one hand, we have to make the most of our lives; on the other, we have to be sorry and punish ourselves if we don't succeed in doing so. This is a perversion of a very beautiful idea: that everyone has a right to control his own destiny and to improve his life.

An overblown conscience is an empty conscience.

You don't have to give people fish everyday but instead you must give them the pole to learn how to fish themselves.

You construct your happiness as you construct a house and you have to work on it. It is a daily job.

Remorse is extremely useful for a generation which has in fact dirtied its hands but for the next generation you cannot ask, for instance, young Germans today to feel guilty about Hitlerism.

You're happy when you leave your concerns to the side and when you experience a pure moment of joy with friends.