the habit of comparison can lead us astray.

"We embark on a journey that can last a lifetime and where each pleasure leads us to the next.

...

Often we have to compare ourselves to others in order to decide whether we're kings and queens or losers. "If people just wanted to be happy, it wouldn't be so hard, but they want to be happier than others - and that is almost always difficult because we imagine others to be happier than they really are," wrote the philosopher Montaigne.

...

in daily life we have to remind ourselves how badly the habit of comparison can lead us astray.

...

Enthusiasm over access to better restaurants, a beautiful car, and a bigger apartment wanes quickly. ... "The treadmill of hedonism" is what the social psychologist Donald Campbell called this fruitless struggle. And worse: chasing after fame and money diminishes life satisfaction. ... The rat race - the chase after recognition for money and status - doesn't pay. Not even the fulfillment of their wishes can compensate the ambitious: wealth and influence bring them no happiness, because as soon as they've attained their heart's desire, they set their sights on a new one.

...

What's important is to have a good perspective and to choose the right moment.

...

When we're only dimly aware of our happiness, we not only forfeit the happiness, but also the knowledge about what it is that we like and what helps us.

...

Just what it is that makes people happy is something we each have to discover for ourselves. Life is not a hundred-yard dash in which we all take off from the same starting line and finish in the same home stretch.

...

Bertolt Brecht described this dilemma in his Threepenny Opera:

Aye, race for happiness

But don't you race too fast.

When all start chasing happiness

Happiness comes in last."

-- The Science of Happiness, Stefan Klein, PhD

it sums up all.

“It is the pleasure of searching and the pleasure of the adventure. You are nourishing something that’s very important-your dreams. We must never stop dreaming. Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body. Many times in our lives we see our dreams shattered and our desires frustrated, but we have to continue dreaming. If we don’t, our soul dies…”

-- The Pilgrimage, Paulo Coelho

i want to read this book!

“In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.”

-- Albert Schweitzer

“If you only do what you know you can do- you never do very much.”

-- Tom Krause

my favorite!!

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

-- Albert Einstein