A quotation from Alexander Pope.
“Order is Heaven’s first law.” --Alexander Pope.
Twelve Personal Commandments
Four Splendid Truths
- First: To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
- Second: 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.
- Third: The days are long, but the years are short. (click the link to see my one-minute movie)
- Fourth: You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.
What Started Me Thinking
- "The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up." Mark Twain
- “There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” Robert Louis Stevenson
- "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
- “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” Simone Weil
- “What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” Colette
- “It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G. K. Chesterton
- “A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.” Joseph Addison
- “Best is good. Better is best.” Lisa Grunwald
- “Order is Heaven’s first law.” Alexander Pope
Happiness Theories I Reject
- Flaubert: "To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless."
- Vauvenargues: “There are men who are happy without knowing it.”
- Eric Hoffer: “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
- Sartre: "Hell is other people."
- Willa Cather: “One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”
- Alexander Smith: “We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.”
- John Stuart Mill: “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”
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Gretchen Rubin is the best-selling writer whose book, The Happiness Project, is the account of the year she spent test-driving studies and theories about how to be happier. Here, she shares her insights to help you create your own happiness project.
Now in Paperback
Buy the book
Sample Chapters Book Video
Free Audio Book Sample
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Key Posts About Happiness
- Secrets of adulthood
- Recommended happiness reading
- Ten myths about happiness
- The movie "Twilight" inspires me to do a better job with some of my resolutions.
- Six tips for good deeds that take less than five minutes
- Imitate a spiritual master – who is yours?
- Five happiness boosters that actually do more harm than good
- Do something every day
One Minute Movies
Wednesday Tips
- August 3: Looking for some reading suggestions in children'
- July 27: 7 books that changed the way I see the world.
- July 13: 7 tips for making happy decisions about how to spend your time, energy, and money.
- July 6: If I can't accomplish anything else today, I can do these 10 things.
- June 29: How to keep reality tv from ruining your life.
- June 22: Want to feel happier by the end of the day? Your menu of options.
- June 15: 10 widespread myths about happiness -- do you believe any of these?
- June 8: 7 tips for minding my own business.
- May 18: 6 tips for battling loneliness.
- May 11: Are you always late? 7 tips to arrive on time.
- May 4: 8 reasons why Twitter can boost your happiness.
- April 27: 7 tips for giving effective praise.
- April 20: 8 reasons why waiting in line drives us crazy.
- April 13: 9 Tips To Quit Nagging.
- April 6: Quiz: Are you a moderator or an abstainer, when trying to give something up.
- March 23: 11 happiness paradoxes to contemplate as you think about your happiness project.
- March 16: 7 ways I violate some standard happiness advice.
- March 9: Quiz: What's your personality type -- for play?
"Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds." - George Santayana
Posted by: Ankesh Kothari | February 19, 2007 at 02:33 AM
For almost a year now I have been considering using a blog to develop a book. Now using wordpress to blog on anything that strikes my fancy...but will create another blog when I have refined my book ideas. Was thrilled to run across your blog...very well done. It addresses a universal theme and that will draw much attention. Will add it to my blog roll on my current blog. My wife and I publish a woman's magazine in the Austin area. I am helping her start a blog and website for "Women in Business",a networking group she has formed. Will add a link on that site as well and maybe we could feature some of your posts now and then. Anyway, good luck and will keep you posted on our progress.
Posted by: Michael Watson | February 19, 2007 at 10:47 AM