Quotes from Tal Ben-Shahar

When you appreciate the good, the good appreciates.

Happiness is the overall experience of pleasure and meaning

Incremental change is better than ambitious failure. . . .Success feeds on itself.

When we fail to attain a desired outcome, we often extrapolate from that experience the belief that we have no control over our lives or over certain parts of it. Such thinking leads to despair.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone. —George Eliot

the more you look at anger, the more it disappears beneath one's very eyes, like the frost melting under the morning sun. When one genuinely looks at it, it suddenly loses its strength.

The most precious things in life are not those you get for money. —Albert Einstein

When the question is Why do you want to be happy? the answer is simple and definitive. We pursue happiness because it is in our nature to do so. When the answer to a question is Because it will make me happy, nothing can challenge the validity and finality of the answer. Happiness is the highest on the hierarchy of goals, the end toward which all other ends lead.

When we fail to attain a desired outcome, we often extrapolate from that experience the belief that we have no control over our lives or over certain parts of it. Such thinking leads to despair. Timon, unhappy as a rat racer, equally unhappy

do you choose to choose and actively create the kind of life that you want for yourself?

Things do not necessarily happen for the best, but I can choose to make the best of things that happen.10

Focusing on the good does not mean ignoring the bad, but rather the understanding that the most effective way to eradicate the bad is to do good.

Happiness grows less from the passive experience of desirable circumstances than from involvement in valued activities and progress toward one's goals. —

Time-use may be the determinant of well-being that is the most susceptible to improvement.

Samuel Smiles, a nineteenth-century English author, wrote, "It is doubtful whether any heavier curse could be imposed on man than the complete gratification of all his wishes without effort on his part, leaving nothing for his hopes, desires or struggles.

of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. History

Experiencing this first level of suffering is inevitable. But the second level of suffering comes when we reject the first level, or when we deprive ourselves of basic human needs like exercise and learning and friendship, or when we fail to seize the moment and appreciate all that we have.

Les gens gentils réussissent mieux que les autres. Le plus beau quand on s'intéresse aux autres, c'est qu'on se détourne de ses propres soucis, ses propres angoisses et ca coute beaucoup moins chère qu'une psychothérapie.

Apprendre tout au long de sa vie, c'est développer pleinement la sagesse qui vient normalement avec l'âge.

not money or prestige, should be regarded as the ultimate currency—the currency by which we take measure of our lives.

Time is a zero-sum game, a limited resource. Life is too short to do only what we have to do; it is barely long enough to do what we want to do.

While I do not believe that things necessarily happen for the best, I know that some people are able to make the best of things that happen.

character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved." Everybody hurts sometimes, and

We say we want the truth; what we mean is that we want to be correct. —Mihnea Moldoveanu