Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

The truly humble man never knows that he is humble.”

The humble person has nothing to lose and nothing to gain. If she is praised, she feels that it is humility,

The humble person has nothing to lose and nothing to gain.

people who overvalue themselves present a higher than average tendency toward aggression.

People who consider themselves superior judge the faults of others more harshly and consider them to be less forgivable.

humble person makes decisions on the basis of what he believes to be right and sticks by them without concern for his own image or the opinions of others.

Further studies have shown that the pessimist’s objective, detached, and wary judgment is inadequate. When it’s a question of real situations drawn from daily life, the optimist’s approach is in fact more realistic and pragmatic than that of the pessimist.

If we observe the way in which people perceive the events of their lives, appreciate the quality of the lived moment, and create their future by overcoming obstacles with an open and creative attitude, we find that the optimists have an undeniable advantage over the pessimists.

pessimists are up to eight times more likely to become depressed when things go wrong;

The optimist, however, trusts that it is possible to achieve her goals and that with patience, resolve, and intelligence, she will ultimately do so. The fact is, more often than not, she does.

if optimism is a way of looking at life and happiness a condition that can be cultivated, one might as well get down to work without further delay.

It is known that hope improves students’ test results and athletes’ performance, makes illness and agonizing debility more bearable, and makes pain itself (from burns, arthritis, spinal injuries, or blindness, for example) easier to tolerate.

The ultimate optimism lies in understanding that every passing moment is a treasure, in joy as in adversity.

“It is not that we have so little time, but that we waste so much of it.”

feeling that we’ve done nothing at the end of the day, the end of the year, the end of life, reveals how unaware we remain of the potential for development we carry within us.

Boredom is the fate of those who rely entirely on distraction, for whom life is one big entertainment

Knowing how to use our time to the full does not mean we always have to be in a hurry or obsessed by the clock.

Whether we are relaxing or concentrating, resting or intensely active, in all circumstances we must be able to recognize the true value of time.

a killer asks you where the person he’s chasing is hiding, that is obviously not the moment to tell the truth.

Conversely, if someone approaches you with a big smile and showers you with compliments only to rip you off, his conduct is nonviolent in appearance, but his intentions are actually malevolent.