The Little Book of Lykke Quotes

“A city is successful not when it’s rich but when its people are happy. Creating bikeability and walkability shows respect for human dignity. We’re telling people, ‘You are important—not because you’re rich, but because you are human.’ If people are treated as special, as sacred, even, they behave that way. We need to walk just as birds need to fly. Creating public spaces is one way to lead us to a society that is not only more equal but also much happier.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“Like most things, the more we have of something, the less happiness we derive from it. The first slice of cake: awesome. The fifth slice: not so good.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“(P)sychologists at the new School for Social Research found that fiction books improve our ability to register and read others' emotions and, according to an article in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, research also shows that literary fiction enhances our ability to reflect on our problems through reading about characters who are facing similar issues and problems.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“See experiences as an investment in happy memories and in your personal story and development.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“The results of five experiments involving more than a thousand participants showed that reading literary fiction improves our ability to detect and understand other people's emotions. But it can't be any sort of fiction. The researchers distinguished between "popular fiction" (where the author leads you by the hand as a reader) and "literary fiction" (in which you must find your own way and fill in the gaps). Instead of being told why a certain character behaves as they do, you have to figure it out yourself. That way, the book becomes not just a simulation of a social experience, it is a social experience.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transport. It is where the rich walk and where they use bikes. We should create cities where rich and poor meet as equals: in parks, on the sidewalks, on public transport.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“Remember: Danes are direct descendants of Vikings, so we enjoy watching things burn: bonfires, candles, villages. It's all good.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“For the ambitious among us, once we reach our goal we soon formulate another to pursue. This is the hedonic treadmill. We continuously raise the bar for what we want or feel we need in order to be happy - and the hedonic treadmill spins faster with ambition. In other words, the downside to being ambitious is a constant sense of dissatisfaction with our achievements.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“Take time to enjoy the journey toward your goal while also being mindful that achieving your goal will not fulfill you completely.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“Expect the hedonic treadmill

Take time to enjoy the journey towards your goal while also being mindful that achieving your goal will not fulfil you completely.

Expect and understand that reaching your goal might make you happy - but only for a while. We continuously raise the bar for what we want or feel we need in order to be happy.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“No people can be truly happy if they do not feel that they are choosing the course of their own life,” states the World Happiness Report 2012—and it also finds that having this freedom of choice is one of the six factors that explain why some people are happier than others.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“our wealth is not measured by the size of our bank accounts but by the strength of our bonds, the health of our loved ones, and the level of our gratitude. That happiness does not come from owning a bigger car but from knowing that we are part of something bigger—part of a community—and that we are all in this together.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“The most successful countries in the twenty-first century will be those that most efficiently turn wealth into well-being—and this also applies to the individual.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“The more we have of something, the less happiness we derive from it.

We continuously raise the bar for what we want or feel we need in order to be happy—and the hedonic treadmill spins faster with ambition. In other words, the downside to being ambitious is a constant sense of dissatisfaction with our achievements.

What works well in Denmark is that enjoying a good quality of life does not have to cost a lot of money. If I lost my job and my savings, I would still be able to enjoy most of the same things I enjoy today.

It is not only about how much money we make, it is also about what we do with the money we have.

See experiences as an investment in happy memories and in your personal story and development.

Our happiness has an impact on our health. A greater level of happiness predicts better future physical health.

The biggest obstacles to happiness are feeling inferior or excluded.

Some of the best decisions we make come from that inner voice that says, ‘Why not?’

You are likely to be more efficient if you have less time.

Meetings are employees talking about work that they have done or work that they are going to do, and managers are people whose job it is to interrupt people. Both are killing our productivity.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“When we discover that our happiness does not rest on the foundation of money, we have found a true treasure.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“Some of the best decisions we make come from that inner voice that says, "Why not?" That says, "Andiamo." So much disappointment arises from what is desired but not chosen.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“So perhaps we need to consider how to turn the idea of the pursuit of happiness into the happiness of the pursuit. People on a quest for something they find meaningful - whether that is building a boat or growing the perfect tomato - tend to be happier; they know that happiness is the by-product of the process and not a pot of gold at the finish line.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“What makes me proud to be part of the human race – with all our faults and failures – is our endless curiosity and imagination.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“Veronica, after discovering that most women in prison in developing countries are incarcerated for poverty-related crimes, established the Copenhagen-based fashion label Carcel—which enables women in prison to turn wasted time into skills and paid jobs so they can support themselves, send their children to school, and save up for a new, crime-free beginning, in the hope, ultimately, of breaking the cycle of poverty and crime. Each product carries the name of the woman who made it and is manufactured inside women’s prisons that pay fair wages to the women to help them support themselves and their children.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“happiness is the by-product of the process and not a pot of gold at the finish line.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“So perhaps we need to consider how to turn the idea of the pursuit of happiness into the happiness of the pursuit.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“Whether you look at the English word 'companion', the Spanish word 'companero' or the French 'copain', they all originate from the Latin 'com' and 'panis' meaning 'with whom one shares bread”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“Put yourself in the shoes of others and pick up some literary fiction. Go for books like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, or The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Find social blenders that allow you to move beyond your normal social circles. Visit places that voted in the opposite end of the political spectrum from you. If you listen to people’s stories, you may find that you might have made some of the same choices if you had lived their life rather than yours. We are not so very different; we just had different starting points. And while it is easy to stop listening and dismiss people we disagree with as ignorant, as evil, and as the enemy, that will only lead us to misery. But perhaps if we listen we might learn that it is inequality, unfairness, and injustice that are the enemy and that empathy, trust, and cooperation are the way forward.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“I’m not sure how long Jean-Paul Sartre’s commute was, but it might have been where he first came up with the phrase “Hell is other people.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“Take the scenic route. There are apps (try Kamino and Field Trip) that will tell you not the fastest route but the prettiest.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“The more people we have with whom we can talk about personal matters, the happier we are.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“six factors: togetherness or sense of community, money, health, freedom, trust, and kindness.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“Мы тратим деньги, которых у нас нет, на покупку вещей, которые нам не нужны, чтобы произвести впечатление на людей, которые нам не нравятся.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“I propose a new mandatory course for all university students. Every student in the class is squeezed into the smallest closet possible and they have to stand there for forty-five minutes without making eye contact with anyone. If you make eye contact, you fail. Then they are asked to move into an even smaller closet—in which they won’t all fit. If you don’t make it into the second wardrobe, you fail the course. I call it “Commuting 101.” I’m not sure how long Jean-Paul Sartre’s commute was, but it might have been where he first came up with the phrase “Hell is other people.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“meetings are employees talking about work that they have done or work that they are going to do, and managers are people whose job it is to interrupt people. Both are killing our productivity.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People