A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe.
A person who forgoes the use of his symbolic skills is never really free.
As long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferences for their own ends.
Entropy is the normal state of consciousness - a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable.
It does not seem to be true that work necessarily needs to be unpleasant. It may always have to be hard, or at least harder than doing nothing at all. But there is ample evidence that work can be enjoyable, and that indeed, it is often the most enjoyable part of life.
It is how people respond to stress that determines whether they will profit from misfortune or be miserable.
People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.
People without an internalized symbolic system can all too easily become captives of the media.
Pleasure is an important component of the quality of life, but by itself it does not bring happiness. Pleasure helps to maintain order, but by itself cannot create a new order in consciousness.
Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason.
