41 Inspirational Daniel Gilbert Quotes (HAPPINESS)

Top 8 Most Famous Daniel Gilbert Quotes (BEST)

“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you’re ever been. The one constant in our lives is change.”
Daniel Gilbert

People are happiest when they're trying to achieve goals that are difficult but not out of reach. — People are happiest when they’re trying to achieve **goals** that are difficult but not out of reach.

If you are like most people, then like most people, you don't know you're like most people. — If you are like most people, then like most people, you don’t know you’re like most people.

The truth is, bad things don't affect us as profoundly as we expect them to. That's true of good things, too. We adapt very quickly to either. — The **truth** is, bad things don’t affect us as profoundly as we expect them to. That’s true of good things, too. We adapt very quickly to either.

“Part of us believes the new car is better because it lasts longer. But, in fact, that’s the worst thing about the new car. It will stay around to disappoint you, whereas a trip to Europe is over. It evaporates. It has the good sense to go away, and you are left with nothing but a wonderful memory.”
Daniel Gilbert

People are drastically overconfident about their judgments of others.

People want to be happy, and all the other things they want are typically meant to be a means to that end.

Impact is rewarding. Mattering makes us happy.

2 Daniel Gilbert Quotes on Money and 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.”
Daniel Gilbert

“Economies thrive when individuals strive, but because individuals will only strive for their own happiness, it is essential that they mistakenly believe that producing and consuming are routes to personal well-being.”
Daniel Gilbert

6 Motivational Daniel Gilbert Quotes About Life (HAPPINESS)

“I think good things are happening to me and will continue. I am not optimistic about the rest of the species, but I’m so blessed, it’s almost scary. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I have a wildly sunny disposition. I love to laugh.”
Daniel Gilbert

Our inability to recall how we really felt is why our wealth of experiences turns out to be poverty of riches. — Our inability to recall how we really felt is why our **wealth** of experiences turns out to be poverty of riches.

“We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.”
Daniel Gilbert

Psychologists call this habituation, economists call it declining marginal utility, and the rest of us call it marriage. — Psychologists call this habituation, economists call it declining marginal utility, and the rest of us call it **marriage**.

“We all have direct experience with things that do or don’t make us happy, we all have friends, therapists, cabdrivers, and talk-show hosts who tell us about things that will or won’t make us happy, and yet, despite all this practice and all this coaching, our search for happiness often culminates in a stinky mess. We expect the next car, the next house, or the next promotion to make us happy even though the last ones didn’t and even though others keep telling us that the next ones won’t.”
Daniel Gilbert

Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished. — Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.

3 Daniel Gilbert Quotes on the Correlation Between Happiness & Variety

“I actually think the same things do make most people happy. The differences are extremely small, and around the margins. You like peach ice cream; I like strawberry ice cream. Both of us like ice cream much better than a smack on the head with two-by-four.”
Daniel Gilbert

The secret of happiness is variety, but the secret of variety, like the secret of all spices, is knowing when to use it. — The secret of **happiness** is variety, but the secret of variety, like the secret of all spices, is knowing when to use it.

Variety improves the things that we do too often, but it rules the things that we don't do often enough. — Variety improves the things that we do too often, but it rules the things that we don’t do often enough.

5 Daniel Gilbert Quotes on Happiness and Emotions

“Your emotions are meant to fluctuate, just like your blood pressure is meant to fluctuate. It’s a system that’s supposed to move back and forth, between happy and unhappy.”
Daniel Gilbert

We don't believe other people's experiences can tell us all that much about our own. I think this is an illusion of uniqueness. — We don’t believe other people’s experiences can tell us all that much about our own. I think this is an illusion of uniqueness.

“If someone offered you a pill that would make you permanently happy, you would be well advised to run fast and run far. Emotion is a compass that tells us what to do, and a compass that perpetually stuck on north is worthless.”
Daniel Gilbert

Among life’s cruellest truths is this one: wonderful things are especially wonderful the first time they happen, but their wonderfulness wanes with repetition.

“The good news is that going blind is not going to make you as unhappy as you think it will. The bad news is that winning the lottery will not make you as happy as you expect.”
Daniel Gilbert

3 Daniel Gilbert Quotes on the Correlation of Our Eyes and Brain

“The brain and the eye may have a contractual relationship in which the brain has agreed to believe what the eye sees, but in return the eye has agreed to look for what the brain wants.”
Daniel Gilbert

Our brain accepts what the eyes see and our eye looks for whatever our brain wants.

“‘Reality’ is a movie generated by our brains. Because we don’t realize this, we are far too confident that the stuff appearing in the movie is actually ‘out there’ in the world when, in fact, it’s not.”
Daniel Gilbert

4 Daniel Gilbert Quotes on Happiness and Our Future Self

“If I wanted to know what a certain future would feel like to me, I would find someone who is already living that future. If I wonder what it’s like to become a lawyer or marry a busy executive or eat at a particular restaurant, my best bet is to find people who have actually done these things and see how happy they are.”
Daniel Gilbert

The human being is the only animal that thinks about the future.

“We treat our future selves as though they were our children, spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy.”
Daniel Gilbert

“No one likes to be criticized, of course, but if the things we successfully strive for do not make our future selves happy, or if the things we unsuccessfully avoid do, then it seems reasonable (if somewhat ungracious) for them to cast a disparaging glance backward and wonder what the hell we were thinking.”
Daniel Gilbert

3 Daniel Gilbert Quotes on Imagination and Happiness

“Imagination cannot easily transcend the boundaries of the present, and one reason for this is that it must borrow machinery that is owned by perception. The fact that these two processes must run on the same platform means that we are sometimes confused about which one is running. We assume that what we feel as we imagine the future is what we’ll feel when we get there, but in fact, what we feel as we imagine the future is often a response to what’s happening in the present.”
Daniel Gilbert

The reality of the moment is so palpable and powerful that it holds imagination in a tight orbit from which it never fully escapes.

“Your mistake was not in imagining things you could not know—that is, after all, what imagination is for. Rather, your mistake was in unthinkingly treating what you imagined as though it were an accurate representation of the facts.”
Daniel Gilbert

7 Wise Daniel Gilbert Quotes that Will Make You Think (WISDOM)

“Lower your cortisol level. The happiest people have the lowest level of cortisol, a stress hormone that raises blood pressure and weakens the immune system. Cut the stress – more yoga, less road rage – and you’ll cut your cortisol production.”
Daniel Gilbert

The fact that we often judge the pleasure of an experience by its ending can cause us to make some curious choices.

My friends tell me that I have a tendency to point out problems without offering solutions, but they never tell me what I should do about it.

“Most of us appear to believe that we are more athletic, intelligent, organized, ethical, logical, interesting, open-minded, and healthy – not to mention more attractive-than the average person.”
Daniel Gilbert