The Happiness Project — Gretchen Rubin

[Subtitle: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun]

"A sense of growth is so important to happiness that it's often preferable to be progressing to the summit rather than to be at the summit. Neither a scientist nor a philosopher but a novelist, Lisa Grunwald, came up with the most brilliant summation of this happiness principle: 'Best is good, better is best.'" (p. 178)

"We expect heroic virtue to look flashy — moving to Uganda to work with AIDS victims, perhaps, or documenting the plight of homeless people in Detroit. Thérèse's [Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the author's chosen "Spiritual Master"] example shows that ordinary life, too, is full of opportunities for worthy, if inconspicuous, virtue." (p. 212)

[On the subject of "the most serious criticism of happiness: it's not right to be happy when there is so much suffering in the world"] "Refusing to be happy because someone else is unhappy, though, is a bit like cleaning your plate because babies are starving in India." (p. 216)

"One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself." (p. 216)

"It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted." (p. 217)

[Under the section labeled "FORGET ABOUT RESULTS."] "An atmosphere of growth brings great happiness, but at the same time, happiness sometimes also comes when you're free from the pressure to see much growth. That's not surprising; often, the opposite of a great truth is also true." (p. 231)