“In the West, for example, people believe they must 'pursue happiness' as if it were some kind of a flighty bird that is always out of reach. In the East, we believe we are born with happiness and one of life's important tasks, my mother told me, is to protect it.”

“Once more I realized to what an extent earthly happiness is made to the measure of man. It is not a rare bird which we must pursue at one moment in heaven, at the next in our minds. Happiness is a domestic bird found in our own courtyards.”

“People who think that happiness is something that’s always within their reach, I wonder how happy they must really be? That woman always gets nervous when she finds herself to be too happy. To that woman, happiness is like a blow bubbles we used to play with when we were little. The moment she touches the bubbles carrying the light of rainbow around her, they burst. In front of happiness, that woman gives up before even reaching out her hand.”

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.”

“If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.”

“True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self; but the point is not only to get out - you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.”