Tal Ben-Shahar > Quotes

“the best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“In Aristotle's words, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“Ralph Waldo Emerson explains, "It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“Life is too short to be in a hurry." If we are always on the go, we are reacting to the exigencies of day-to-day life rather than allowing ourselves the space to create a happy life.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“Our behavior toward others is often a reflection of our treatment of ourselves.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Pursuit of Perfect

“Incremental change is better than ambitious failure. . . .Success feeds on itself.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Pursuit of Perfect

“Leonardo da Vinci pointed out that "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. —Eleanor Roosevelt”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness

“Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. —”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“Choice is creation. To choose is to create. Through my choices I create my reality. At every moment in my life I have a choice. Moments add up to a lifetime; choices add up to a life. What kind of life do I want for myself? What choices will create this kind of life?”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. —Aristotle”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“Things do not necessarily happen for the best, but I can choose to make the best of things that happen.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness

“Nobody likes to fail, but there is a difference between a normal aversion to failure and an intense fear of failure. Aversion to failure motivates us to take necessary precautions and to work harder to achieve success. By contrast, intense fear of failure often handicaps us, making us reject failure so vigorously that we cannot take the risks that are necessary for growth. This fear not only compromises our performance but jeopardizes our overall psychological well-being. Failure is an inescapable part of life and a critically important part of any successful life. We learn to walk by falling, to talk by babbling, to shoot a basket by missing, and to color the inside of a square by scribbling outside the box. Those who intensely fear failing end up falling short of their potential. We either learn to fail or we fail to learn.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Being Happy: You Don't Have to Be Perfect to Lead a Richer, Happier Life

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. — Albert Einstein”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“The choice is a simple one: Learn to fail, or fail to learn.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness

“The all-or-nothing mind-set leads Perfectionists to transform every setback they encounter into a catastrophe, an assault on their very worth as human beings. Their sense of self inevitably suffers as their faultfinding turns inward.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Being Happy: You Don't Have to Be Perfect to Lead a Richer, Happier Life

“Happy people live secure in the knowledge that the activities that bring them enjoyment in the present will also lead to a fulfilling future.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“A human being, like a business, makes profits and suffers losses. For a human being, however, the ultimate currency is not money, nor is it any external measure, such as fame, fortune, or power. The ultimate currency for a human being is happiness. Money and fame are subordinate to happiness and have no intrinsic value. The only reason money and fame may be desirable is that having them or the thought of having them could lead to positive emotions or meaning. In themselves, wealth and fame are worthless: there would be no reason to seek fame and fortune if they did not contribute, in some way, toward happiness.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“happiness, not money or prestige, should be regarded as the ultimate currency—the currency by which we take measure of our lives.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“those who kept a daily gratitude journal—writing down at least five things for which they were grateful—enjoyed higher levels of emotional and physical well-being.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“Such attachment to past failures has been described by Martin Seligman as "learned helplessness.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“the best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth” and so it goes away. —Robert M. Pirsig”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness

“In emphasizing achievements (which are tangible) over the cultivation of a love of learning (which is intangible), schools simultaneously reinforce the rat-race mentality and stifle children's emotional development.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

“All of us, regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in, can make a conscious effort to search for possibilities around and within ourselves.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness

“The pain associated with the fear of failure is often stronger than the pain of the failure itself”
― Tal Ben-Shahar

“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Pursuit of Perfect

“The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone. —George Eliot”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness

“The most precious things in life are not those you get for money. —Albert Einstein”
― Tal Ben-Shahar, Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness