psychology

The existence of forgetting has never been proved: We only know that some things don’t come to mind when we want them.

Similarly, food servers have learned that simply giving customers a candy or mint along with their bill significantly increases tips; and in a restaurant frequented by international tourists, this was the case no matter the nationality of the guests.

As a character in Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan replies when told of the theory of Pythagoras that the earth is round and revolves around the sun: “What an utter fool! Couldn’t he use his eyes?”

The act of giving if received properly is a nourishment to the creative spirit. Love feeds love. And our creative waters are restored by filling another’s cup.

You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.

Optimists are normally cheerful and happy, and therefore popular; they are resilient in adapting to failures and hardships, their chances of clinical depression are reduced, their immune system is stronger, they take better care of their health, they feel healthier than others and are in fact likely to live longer.

So, as I have already said, Lincoln put the letter aside, for he had learnt by bitter experience that sharp criticisms and rebukes almost invariably end in futility.

We are responsible for experiences that aren’t our fault all the time. This is part of life.

You don’t want to be a phony transactional networker. You want this to become an organic, serendipitous, natural friendship, right?