« Long-lasting aspiration for happiness, for a happiness that does not impose the withdrawal of the world in a golden citadel, which does not impose the dumbing down of our moods in alcohol, drugs, video games, or hard work, it requires accepting the world as it is: tragic. Happiness is not a speculative bubble, in which one would retreat, based on the bet of a universe that would be made for happiness. The intelligence of our states of mind helps us to understand this: there can be no air-conditioned interiority, but only a living interiority, where the states of mind of suffering highlight the need for states of mind of happiness. »

« This strange feeling that sadness is sometimes just a worn-out joy, a happiness that has made its time... If we cling to them, our happiness can become sadness. You have to accept to go your way, to give up this dead happiness. Accept that there are so many corpses of small or big happy moments behind us. Accept that they survive only in the form of memories. Do not attach or cling to them precisely, to these moments, but to the very idea of happiness. »

« Other studies show how aging can give more ability to happiness and by what mechanisms close to wisdom: for example, by looking at one's past by considering it in the form of learning and continuous development. In doing this, we get closer to the essential: it is not to grow old that is a chance, it is to have lived, and lived many experiences, fully, to have thought about it, to have rejoiced and enriched. »