we are more likely to avert risk than to seek out happiness.

"To this day, we are more likely to avert risk than to seek out happiness. In every newspaper, bad news yields larger headlines than good news. Losses inflict hurt more than equivalent gains bring joy.

 ...

Nature had to enable its creatures to deal with a world that is constantly changing, and that's just what curiosity does well - enabling us not just to accept new things but also to want them. When we explore the world, we're a step ahead of it.

(yea man, go out and expose ourselves to the world! theres always new things to do, see, taste, feel and love.)

...

People may be surprised by those who are so different from themselves, but there is little point trying to reeducate someone who is restless, or immobile, for the degree to which a person needs new stimulation is probably inborn.

(see that?! its scientifically proven, no point altering our INBORN curiosity. satiety will come if we follow our soul.)

...

And the Old Testament describes the emptiness that King Kohelet felt after having amassed more property and enjoyed more delights than any king before him: "Then my thoughts turned to all the fortune my hands had built up, to the wealth I had acquired and won - and oh, it was all futile and pursuit of wind; there was no real value under the sun!... And so I loathed life."

(so you see, having the riches in the whole world doesn't necessarily equate to happiness.)

...

Independent of age, health and sex, a lonely person is twice as likely to die within the coming year than someone who feels secure in his relationship with others. Smoking, on the other hand, increases the risk of death by a factor of only one and a half. "

(this means it is okay to become a social smoker to extend your health should u have a desperate need to fit in. haha. contradicting? but yea.)

-- The Science of Happiness, Stefan Klein, PhD