"A close friend said a marvelous and disturbing thing to me one rainy afternoon . . . that claiming our happiness life is one of the most difficult things a human being can do . . . 'because the moment we claim the happiness to which we have long aspired, large parts of us are immediately out of a job. All the parts of you that believed it wasn't possible are about to be let go. What is left is a simplified version of what you were before. If you do not recognized this simplified essence, you feel like a stranger to yourself.' "
"I have often thought that spending a few moments a day practicing the art of happiness, of gratefulness, of celebration and arrival, of victory in tiny but important things would go a long way toward preparing us for those grander, more lifelong goals for which we are often unprepared."