Happiness Threshold Quotes

Below an income of ... $60,000 a year, people are unhappy, and they get progressively unhappier the poorer they get. Above that, we get an absolutely flat line. ... Money does not buy you experiential happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery.

The word "utopia" has two meanings. It means both "good place" and "nowhere". That's the way it should be. The happiest places, I think, are the ones that reside just this side of paradise. The perfect person would be insufferable to live with; likewise, we wouldn't want to live in the perfect place, either. "A life time of happiness! No man could bear it: It would be hell on earth," wrote George Bernard Shaw, in his play Man and Superman.

I started not enjoying myself. It wasn't fun at times. And I always said when that point comes when it's not fun anymore, then I'm done.

It's nonsense to say money doesn't buy happiness, but people exaggerate the extent to which more money can buy more happiness.

The data says that with the poor, a little money can buy a lot of happiness. If you're rich, a lot of money can buy you a little more happiness. But in both cases, money does it.

I think all actors, when they're not working, say, 'If I can get to this point where I'm working on a consistent basis, I'll be happy.' Of course, then, if that happens for you, and you're lucky, you find some other reason to complain. There's a joke: 'If you want to hear an actor complain, give him a job.'

We live in a time of extremes. People think that, on a scale of 1-10, if they're not at a 10 for happy, they're not happy.

There's an inherent limit to the stress that any material can bear. Water has its boiling point, metals their melting points. The elements of the spirit behave the same way. Happiness can reach a pitch so great that any further happiness can't be felt. Pain, despair, humiliation, disgust, and fear are no different. Once the vessel is full, the world can't add to it.