Eric Weiner

“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.”

“Обича начина,по който горещата вода блика от земята подобно на геотермално злато. Обича начина, по който хората те канят на кафе без специален повод и могат да разговарят с теб в продължение на часове за всичко и за нищо специално. Обича начина, по който с любов наричат страната си "Леденото кубче". Обича факта,че без да полага никакви усилия, вече се е запознал с трима депутати от парламента. Обича начина, по който в кристалните зимни дни снегът хруска под краката ти като божествен стиропор. Обича хоровете, които пеят по тротоарите на главната търговска улица през декември, и гласовете им-силни и лъчисти, възпират нощта. Обича начина,по който петгодишните деца спокойно ходят сами на училище в мрака преди зазоряване. Обича вълшебното, неземно чувство, че плува насред снежната буря. Обича това, че когато колата ти затъне в снега, винаги някой ще спре, за да ти помогне. Обича начина,по който исландците ръкопляскат бурно, когато самолетът им каца на международното летище в Кефлавик просто защото са щастливи,че се завръщат у дома. Обича начина, по който исландците съумяват да бъдат изключително горди, но без следа от арогантност. И, да, той обича - не просто понася, - активно обича мрака.”

“Orang-orang di Amerika Serikat tidak mencemari lingkungan sebagian karena takut didenda. Orang-orang di Bhutan tidak mencemari lingkungan karena mereka takut kepada dewata rumah kaca.”

“Semua momen dalam kehidupan saya, setiap orang yang saya temui, semua perjalanan yang telah saya tempuh, setiap keberhasilan yang telah saya nikmati, setiap kesalahan yang telah saya buat, setiap kerugian yang saya tanggung adalah bukan masalah.”

“Mungkin kebahagiaan adalah ini: tidak merasa Anda harus berada di suatu tempat lain, melakukan sesuatu yang lain, menjadi orang lain.”

“Ketika pohon terakhir ditebang,Ketika sungai terakhir dikosongkan,Ketika ikan terakhir ditangkap,Barulah manusia akan menyadari bahwa dia tidak dapat memakan uang.”

“a simple question to identify your true home: where do you want to die?”

“what doesn't kill you not only make you stronger, but also more honest.”

“Bepergian pulang-pergi bekerja ternyata mengganggu kebahagiaan kita maupun kesehatan jasmani kita. Setiap menit yang dihabiskan di jalanan berarti satu menit lebih sedikit yang bisa kita manfaatkan bersama keluarga dan sahabat.”

“Tidak ada sesuatu yang lebih membosankan daripada suara kemakmuran. Desing membosankan suara penyejuk udara atau suara klik yang teredam dari sebuah keyboard tidak bisa mengalahkan suara teriakan para penjaja di pasar terbuka atau suara deru mesin jahit di pabrik. Bahkan lalu lintas negara Dunia Ketiga, dengan simfoni klakson dan lonceng yang berdentang, mengalahkan suara wah yang monoton di sebuah jalan bebas hambatan modern.”

“Too often when we say we feel joyful, we’re really feeling manic. There is a frenetic nature to our joy, a whiff of panic; we’re 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.”

“Some places are like family. They annoy us to no end, especially during the holidays, but we keep coming back for more because we know, deep in our hearts, that our destinies are intertwined.”

“Our happiness is completely and utterly intertwined with other people: family and friends and neighbors and the woman you hardly notice who cleans your office. Happiness is not a noun or verb. It's a conjunction. Connective tissue.”

“Dia berkata bahwa ketika dia merasa sedih, dia berbicara kepada Tuhannya. Bukan berdoa, tapi berbicara. 'Berbicara' terasa alami, tidak seperti 'berdoa'.”

“Money sometimes buys happiness. You have to break it down, though. Money is a means to an end. The problem is when you think it is an end in itself. Happiness is relationships, and people in the west think money is needed for relationships. But it's not. It comes down to trustworthiness." I'd heard the same thing in Switzerland. Trust is a prerequisite for happiness. Trust not only of your government, of institutions, but trust of your neighbors.”

“The late British-born philosopher Alan Watts, in one of his wonderful lectures on eastern philosophy, used this analogy: "If I draw a circle, most people, when asked what I have drawn, will say I have drawn a circle or a disc, or a ball. Very few people will say I've drawn a hole in the wall, because most people think of the inside first, rather than thinking of the outside. But actually these two sides go together--you cannot have what is 'in here' unless you have what is out there.' "In other words, where we are is vital to who we are.”

“Demikian pula halnya, hanya ketidakbahagiaan yang memiliki makna. Itulah sebabnya mengapa kita merasa terpaksa membicarakannya dan punya banyak kata untuk melukiskannya. Kebahagiaan tidak membutuhkan kata-kata.”

“..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.”

“Only a fool or philosopher would make sweeping generalizations about the nature of happiness. I am no philosopher, so here goes: Money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic. So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude.”

“That's why we feel so disoriented, irritated even, when these touchstones from our past are altered. We don't like it when our hometown changes, even in small ways. It's unsettling. The playground! It used to be right here, I swear. Mess with our hometown, and you're messing with our past, with who we are. Nobody likes that.”

“And yet, over the years I've met so many people like Jared who seem to be more at home, happier, living in a country not of their birth. ... Not political refugees, escaping a repressing regime, nor economic refugees, crossing a border in search of a better-paying job. The are hedonic refugees, moving to a new land, a new culture, because they are happier there. Usually hedonic refugees have an ephiphany, a moment of great clarity when they realize, beyond a doubt, that they were born in the wrong country.”

“God is not an exclamation point. He is, at his best, a semicolon, connecting people, and generating what Aldous Huxley called “human grace.” Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost sight of this.”

“I would not have done anything differently. All of the moments in my life, everyone I have met, every trip I have taken, every success I have enjoyed, every blunder I have made, every loss I have endured has been just right. I am not saying that they were all good or that they happened for a reason...but they have been right. They have been okay. As far as revelations go its pretty lame, I know. Okay is not bliss or even happiness. Okay is not the basis for a new religion or self help movement. Okay won't get me on Oprah, but okay is a start and for that I am grateful. Can I thank Bhutan for this breakthrough? It's hard to say […] It is a strange place, peculiar in ways large and small. You lose your bearings here and when that happens a crack forms in your armor. A crack large enough, if you're lucky, to let in a few shafts of light.”

“We are shaped not only by our current geography but by our ancestral one as well. Americans, for instance, retain a frontier spirit even though the only frontier that remains is that vast open space between the SUV and strip mall. We are our past.”

“As I railed on and on, I became increasingly energied and excited by my own misery and misanthropy until I reached a kind of orgasm of negativity.'... The Brits don't merely enjoy misery, they get off on it.”

“For me, a place unvisited is like an unrequited love. A dull ache that- try as you might to think it away, to convince yourself that she really wasn't the right country for you- just won't leave you in peace.”

“We need to a new word to describe Swiss happiness.”

“Every country has its cocktail-party question. A simple one-sentence query, the answer to which unlocks a motherlode of information about the person you just met.... In Switzerland it is, Where are you from? That is all you need to know about someone.”

“Emma has just returned from a visit to her factory. On the floor, she has spread piles of bags. They are everywhere, and they are beautiful. I'm tempted to get naked and roll around in the pile but restrain myself. This is a forgiving place, but even the inhabitants of 1 Shanti Road have their limits.”

“And so I do. I have inter course, right there in the Hotel van Walsum dining room. I enjoy it very much, this unhurried dining experience. I sip my beer, stare into space, and, in general, do nothing--until the waiter brings the grilled salmon, indicating that, for now, my inter course is over.”

“Part of positive psychology is about being positive, but sometimes laughter and clowns are not appropriate. Some people don't want to be happy, and that's okay. They want meaningful lives, and those are not always the same as happy lives.”

“I've spent most of my life trying to think my way to happiness, and my failure to achieve that goal only proves, in my mind, that I am not a good enough thinker. It never occurred to me that the source of my unhappiness is not flawed thinking but thinking itself.”

“We help other people because we can, or because it makes us feel good, not because we're counting on some future payback. There is a word for this; love.”

“[Happiness is] a ghost, it’s a shadow. You can’t really chase it. It’s a by-product, a very pleasant side effect to a life lived well.”

“There's no one on the island telling them they're not good enough, so they just go ahead and sing and paint and write.”

“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?”

“So the greatest source of happiness is other people--and what does money do? It isolates us from other people. It enables us to build walls, literal and figurative, around ourselves. We move from a teeming college dorm to an apartment to a house, and if we're really wealthy, to an estate. We think we're moving up, but really we're walling off ourselves.”

“Until the eighteenth century, people believed that biblical paradise, the Garden of Eden, was a real place. It appeared on maps--located, ironically, at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in what is now modern-day Iraq.”

“Money matters but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic. So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude.”