Quotes from Matt Haig

HAPPINESS IS NOT good for the economy. We are encouraged, continually, to be a little bit dissatisfied with ourselves. Our bodies are too fat, or too thin, or too saggy. Our skin is expected to have the right 'sun-kissed glow', or the

He didn't even seem bothered. To seem grateful in any way for the universe he was in. the universe she had felt so guilty for not allowing to happen.

The word 'viral' is perfect at describing the contagious effect caused by the combination of human nature and technology. And, of course, it isn't just videos and products and tweets that can be contagious. Emotions can be, too. A completely connected world has the potential to go mad, all at once.

How to get out of bed Wake up. Pick up phone. Stare at phone for 72 minutes. Sigh. Get out of bed. Alternatively, once in a while, try skipping stages two to four.

but people only see the truth if it is close enough to their reality

And I've been like this for as long as I can remember. I have gone to the doctor many times, convinced of my imminent demise because of an illness I've googled myself into having. As a child, if my mum was late picking me up from primary school it would only take about a minute for me to convince myself she had probably died in a hideous car accident. That never happened, but it's continual not-happening-ness never stopped the possibility that it could happen. Every moment

History is people. Everyone loves history.' Daphne looks at me doubtfully, her face retreating into her neck as her eyebrows rise. 'Are you sure about that?' I offer a small nod. 'It's just making them realise that everything they say and do and see is only what they say and do and see because of what has gone before. Because of Shakespeare. Because of every human who ever lived.

There are billions of different versions of an older you. There is one version of the present you. Focus on that.

She left the room. I stared at the tweet I was about to post. It wasn't going to add anything to my life. Or anyone else's life. It was just going to lead to more checking of my phone, like Pepys with his pocket watch. I pressed delete, and felt a strange relief as I watched each letter disappear.

As Eleanor Roosevelt said, 'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Assessment culture is toxic. The Belgian professor of psychoanalysis, Paul Verhaeghe, believes that the way work is now set up in our societies, with supervisors supervising supervisors and everyone being watched and marked and continually assessed, is toxic.

It occurred to me that human beings didn't live beyond a hundred because they simply weren't up for it. Psychologically, I mean. You kind of ran out. There wasn't enough self to keep going. You grew too bored of your own mind.

To enjoy life, we might have to stop thinking about what we will never be able to do, and start to think of how to enjoy the world within our boundaries. To live on a human scale. To focus on the few things we can do, rather than the millions of things we can't

It is a wistful smile. The kind of smile no one is capable of before the age of forty. The kind that contains sadness and defiance and amusement all at once.

ViaÈ›a e ca un horn de sob?-uneori trebuie s? treci prin întuneric ca s? vezi lumina.

There was an invisible baton of failure her mother had passed down, and Nora had held it for a long time.

I am a catastrophizer. I don't simply worry. No. My worry has real ambition. My worry is limitless. My anxiety—even when I don't have capital-A Anxiety—is big enough to go anywhere. I have always found it easy to think of the worst-case scenario and dwell on it.

Miika had disappeared. And then Nikolas felt so dreadful he said something equally dreadful. The very worst thing that anyone can ever say. (Close your eyes and ears, especially if you are an elf.) "There is no magic," he whispered, delirious. And after that, everything became darkness.

I click through her photos.

the main lesson of history is: humans don't learn from history.

Don't worry about the time you lose to despair. The time you will have afterwards has just doubled its value.

Let's just understand this. If we are tired or hungry or hungover, we are likely to be in a bad mood. That bad mood is therefore not really us. To believe in the things we feel at that point is wrong, because those feelings would disappear with food or sleep.

But by not taking it, I became very in tune with myself. This helped me know what exactly made me feel better (exercise, sunshine, sleep, intense conversation, etc.) and this alertness, an alertness I know from myself and others can be lost via pills, eventually helped me build myself back up from scratch. If I had been dulled or felt that otherness meds can make you feel, things might have been harder.

Be less robot, more human. Be more imperfect. Evolution happens through mistakes.