But the most important finding of all is that happiness does notreally depend on objective conditions of either wealth, health or evencommunity. Rather, it depends on the correlation between objectiveconditions and subjective expectations. - P382
Another is that the findings demonstrate thathappiness is not the surplus of pleasant over unpleasant moments. Rather, happiness consists in seeing one‘s life in its entirety as mean-ingful and worthwhile. There is an important cognitive and ethi-cal component to happiness. Our values make all the difference towhether we see ourselves as ‘miserable slaves to a baby dictator‘ oras ‘lovingly nurturing a new life?? As Nietzsche put it, if you have awhy to live, you can bear almost any how. A meaningful life can beextremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a mean-ingless life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is. - P391
People are liberated from suffering not when they experience thisor that fleeting pleasure, but rather when they understand the imper-manent nature of all their feelings, and stop craving them. This is theaim of Buddhist meditation practices. - P395
We stand poised on the brink of becoming true cyborgs, of havinginorganic features that are inseparable from our bodies, features thatmodify our abilities, desires, personalities and identities. - P404
Our late modern world prides itself on recognising, for the firsttime in history, the basic equality of all humans, yet it might bepoised to create the most unequal of all societies. Throughout his-tory, the upper classes always claimed to be smarter, stronger andgenerally better than the underclass. They were usually deludingthemselves. - P410
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