Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Bertrand Russell on the need for a balance between boredom and excitement in a good life

All great books contain boring portions , and all great lives have contained uninteresting stretches

Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

Monday, September 29, 2014

Winston Churchill on Courage

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarentees the others.
Winston Churchill quoted by Gordon Brown in his book on Courage.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

One of Daniel Kahneman's Favourite Quotations - How his system 1 (fast thinking) functions

"Her favourite position is beside herself and her favourite sport is jumping to conclusions"
Comedian Danny Kaye speaking about a woman he dislikes

Quoted in Thinking Fast and Slow, chapter on  "A Machine for Jumping to conclusions" 
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Friday, September 26, 2014

St Francis de Sales answering the question "How often should one meditate?"

Half an hour's meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.

St Francis de Sales 

Monday, September 22, 2014

William Hazlitt on how to win friends and influence people



Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

George Eliot on positivity



“Wear a smile and make friends; wear a scowl and make wrinkles.  What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?”



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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Michael Fordyce on the value of knowing about happiness

I don’t think anyone would question the fact that if you were going to hire an engineer to build a bridge for you, you would hope that he was up to date on all engineering factors and formulas and therein so on and so forth and the more knowledge he had about his craft or his skill, the better the eventual his bridge would be. In every area of life, we take that as just a basic gut assumption; that the more information you have the better decision you make, the better bridge you can build, the better building you can create or whatever.

Happiness is apparently no different. The more you know about it, the better able you are to find it.

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