Venugopal R

“Even if it were possible to live out one’s life in Disneyland, a eudaimonic approach would surely require seeing past Disney’s consumable facades, acknowledging the struggles of the cast members who play its character roles, and engaging with the urban systems that support the experience machine. Disneyland and its visitors contribute to the traffic and urban blight that awaits beyond its walls. You cannot separate one pleasurable moment from the system that created it, or your own role in creating that system. The question then is, how can real designs in real places infuse life with the sensual and sensory pleasures we often pay to experience? Should they even try?”
― Charles Montgomery, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

“The problem is, we consistently make decisions that suggest we are not so good at distinguishing between ephemeral and lasting pleasures. We keep getting it wrong.”
― Charles Montgomery, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

“The sad part is that a place’s popularity can actually destroy the elements that contribute to happiness. The more we flock to high-status cities for the good life – money, opportunity, novelty – the more crowded, expensive, polluted and congested those places become.”
― Charles Montgomery, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

“Even when things don't go very well, even when life is hard, it still tends to be a pretty wonderful thing to be alive.”
― Daniel M. Haybron