As of late I've felt suffocated by today's News. Tired of drowning in coverage of death, war, terrorism, I decided to look at happiness.

At the end of a long and probably very boring meal (at a formal dinner), (British Prime Minister) Macmillan turned to Madame de Gaulle and asked politely what she was looking forward to in her retirement. Quick as a flash the elderly lady replied: A penis. Macmillan had been trained all his life never to appear shocked, but even he was a bit taken aback. After drawling out a series of polite platitudes, - Well, I can see your point of view, don't have much time for that sort of thing nowadays - it gradually dawned on him to his intense relief that what the old girl had actually said was happiness.
- Paul Foot, in the essay A New Definition: The Quality of Life, British Medical Journal, VOLUME 321, DECEMBER 2000

Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length.
-ROBERT FROST

Happiness

The evidence is clear: our wellbeing depends on cooperation and the public good, not personal enrichment
When God died, GDP took over and economists became the new high priests. That has been the story of the last century, with prophets from Hayek to Keynes. The "dismal science" - economics - rules our lives and politics. So when one of the wizards of economics breaks ranks spectacularly and rips away the curtain of his own profession's mystique, it is time to take notice.
· HA [GuardianUK]
· Piness [GuardianUK]