Eric Weiner

..there is more to life than just pleasure. We want to achieve our happiness and not just experience it.

I've always believed that happiness is just around the corner. The trick is fining the right corner.

[Happiness is] a ghost, it__ a shadow. You can__ really chase it. It__ a by-product, a very pleasant side effect to a life lived well.

Yes, failure is part of the mix, he says, but it is a means, not an end. If you fail repeatedly, and in the same manner, you're an idiot, not a genius.

The act of underlining always contains an element of self-recognition.

Too often when we say we feel joyful, we__e really feeling manic. There is a frenetic nature to our joy, a whiff of panic; we__e afraid the moment might end abruptly. But then there are other moments when our joy is more solidly grounded. I am not speaking of a transcendental moment, of bliss, but something less.

Perhaps it's true you can't go back in time, but you can return to the scene of a love, of a crime, of happiness, and of a fateful decision; the places are what remain, are what you can possess, are what is immortal.

In other words, where we are is vital to who we are.

Rule number one: wear loose clothing. No Problem. Rule number two: no alcohol for the next three days. Slight problem. I'll miss my evening glass of wine but figure I can go for three days without and compensate later.And the last rule: absolutely no coffee or tea or caffeine of any kind.Big problem. This rule hits me like a sucker punch and sure would have knocked me to the floor had I not been sitting there already. I'm eying the exits, plotting my escape. I knew enlightenment came at a price, but i had no idea the price was this steep. A sense of real panic sets in. How am I going to survive for the next seventy-two hours without a single cup of coffee?

Believing in everything looks a lot like believing in nothing.

It's a silly argument, and unnecessary. Creativity doesn't happen "in here" or "out there" but in the spaces in between. Creativity is a relationship, one that unfolds at the intersection of person and place.

Nothing kills creativity faster than a wall.

Einstein's secretary once said that if Einstein were born among the polar bears, he would still be Einstein. But unless polar bears were well versed in theoretical physics, that is not true. Einstein would not be Einstein. Which is not to take anything away from Einstein, or the polar bears, but simply to point out that he was part of a creative ecology, and trying to isolate him from it is not only silly but futile.

All genuinely creative ideas are initially met with rejection, since they necessarily threaten the status quo. An enthusiastic reception for a new idea is a sure sign that it is not original.

God is not an exclamation point. He is, at his best, a semicolon, connecting people, and generating what Aldous Huxley called __uman grace._ Somewhere along the way, we__e lost sight of this.

A confused mind is one that is open to the possibility of change.

Philosophy is like wine. There are good years and bad years but, in general, the older the better.

Places of genius challenge us. They are difficult. They do not earn their place in history with ethnic restaurants or street festivals, but by provoking us, making demands of us. Crazy, unrealistic, beautiful demands.