Most people assume that more money provides more happiness. With great pride I showed her the refrigerator-freezer, the dishwasher, the washer and dryer, the electric stove with timer controls, and the disposal unit in the kitchen sink. She admired everything extravagantly and then sat watching me prepare dinner. I thought about it carefully, weighing the merits of each appliance, and finally decided that the refrigerator was the one I really couldn't do without. Happiness comes more from an attitude of gratitude than from unrelenting abundance.
Happiness comes from a choice to be grateful.
If a typical person were asked to describe their vision of ultimate happiness, it might include luxury and leisure. But research suggests that the novelty of such riches wears off quickly. William Lyon Phelps Happiness, as it turns out, has less to do with what we have than in the opportunity to work and contribute. Productive activity is one of the most dependable sources of human happiness . . . Desserts have their place, but the mainstay of any happiness diet is productive effort, developing and exercising skills, doing something that needs doing.