Happy All the Time

"That’s a book that will make you happy and it’s a quick read. It’s about how two couples come together and what happens when your happiness is bound up with another person’s happiness. In general, married people are happier. It’s true that happy people tend to make better dates and better spouses, so they tend to get married and stay married. But it also seems like marriage itself causes happiness because it’s the source of the companionship and intimacy, two things that people need to be happier. I tried shortcuts. Hypnosis. Acupuncture. Exercise is one shortcut that actually works, as studies show. The fact that I spent a year on my happiness project doesn’t mean that others need to do the same to get happier. I executed my happiness project in an extremely over-the-top, type-A way. Just doing one or two things differently can make you much happier. The important thing is to keep moving in the right direction. We all fall short. As Benjamin Franklin said when reflecting on his own happiness project, “though I never arrived at the perfection… I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it”."

"Laurie Colwin, after reading and foisting “Happy All the Time” many times."