The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World

They have succeeded, but I wonder at what cost. In their world, happiness is reduced to yet another statistic, data to be sliced, diced, parsed, run through the computer, and, ultimately, inevitably, reduced to spreadsheets. And I can’t think of anything less happy than a spreadsheet.

“A lifetime of happiness! No man could bear it: It would be hell on Earth,”

mai pen lai on my lips.

We want to achieve our happiness and not just experience it. Perhaps we even want to experience unhappiness, or at least leave open the possibility of unhappiness, in order to truly appreciate happiness.

But Veenhoven’s research shows that tolerant people tend to be happy.

Money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic. So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude.

Fiji, Tahiti, the Bahamas—they all fall into the middle latitudes of happiness. Happy countries tend to be those in temperate climates, and some of the happiest—Iceland, for instance—are downright cold.

“The intention that Man should be happy is not in the plan of Creation.”

People who attend religious services report being happier than those who do not, but the world’s happiest nations are secular.