Like most people, I have several pet subjects - that may or may not be interesting to other people. Don't get me started on happiness, or habits, or children's literature, or Winston Churchill, unless you really want to talk about it.
During my study of happiness, I noticed something that surprised me: I often learn more from one person's highly idiosyncratic experiences than I do from sources that detail universal principles or cite up-to-date studies.
In a democracy, the well-being, individuality and happiness of every citizen is important for the overall prosperity, peace and happiness of the nation.
One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.
The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to feel happiness living within that environment.
I love walking down the street and seeing faces and drama and happiness and sadness and dirt and cleanliness.
There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all.
My beauty ethos? Well, I'd love to tell you it's something like 'less is more,' but honestly, it all starts with happiness. If only someone could bottle that up - when I'm happy, I'm at my most radiant and glowing. It does me better than any product ever could. And I stand by how cheesy and cliched that sounds.
For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair.
Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety. It is a long succession of little decisions simply to be happy in the moment.
The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.
The single most important factor in our long-term happiness is the relationships we have with our family and close friends.
So here is one of my theories on happiness: we cannot know if we have lived a truly happy life until the very end. This view of life and death was reinforced by my close witnessing of the buildup to the death of Philip Gould. Philip was without doubt my closest friend in politics. When he died, I felt like I had lost a limb.
Good clothing is a passport to happiness.
Now I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers and laid entwined together on a bed of clover and left there to sleep, left there to dream of their happiness.
To me, 'Alors On Danse' is the definition of clubbing. Because everyone is just trying to forget their problems, but actually, it's so sad, clubbing. We try to sell happiness in clubs, but you can't.
In the scope of a happy life, a messy desk or an overstuffed coat closet is a trivial thing, yet I find - and I hear from other people that they agree - that getting rid of clutter gives a disproportionate boost to happiness.
A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.
The kind of experience of humility and happiness that comes with gratitude tends to crowd out whatever is coarse, or ugly, or mean.
I saw 'Joy Luck Club' when it came out, so that was early mid-'90s, and I remember seeing it with my long-time collaborator, Mina Shum. We'd just done 'Double Happiness,' and we saw this movie, and we were weeping. Like, shuddering weeping. Weeping more than really the film deserved.
