Happiness is not out there for us to find. The reason that it's not out there is that it's inside us.

The practice of gratitude is incompatible with negative emotions and may actually diminish or deter such feelings as anger, bitterness, and greed.

In a nutshell, the fountain of happiness can be found in how you behave, what you think, and what goals you set every day of your life.

When we are fully mindful of the transience of things - an impending return home from an overseas adventure, a graduation, our child boarding the school bus for the first day of kindergarten, a close colleague changing jobs, a move to a new city - we are more likely to appreciate [be grateful for] and savor the remaining time that we do have. Although bittersweet experiences also make us sad, it is this sadness that prompts us, instead of taking it for granted, to come to appreciate the positive aspects of our vacation, colleague, or hometown; it's 'now or never.'

It turns out that the process of working toward a goal, participating in a valued and challenging activity, is as important to well-being as its attainment.

All that is required to become an optimist is to have the goal and to practice it. The more you rehearse optimistic thoughts, the more 'natural' and 'ingrained' they will become. With time they will be part of you, and you will have made yourself into an altogether different person.

Forgiving people are less likely to be hateful, depressed, hostile, anxious, angry, and neurotic.