Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The world’s greatest philosophers came from Europe, because they spent their time at cafés and let their minds wander until some radically new school of philosophy popped into their heads. I was hunting for happiness. #2 I visit the World Database of Happiness, or WDH, in the morning. It is a secularist’s answer to the Vatican and Mecca and Jerusalem and Lhasa, all rolled into one. #3 I interview Dr. Ruut Veenhoven, a professor of happiness studies, who explains to me that he came of age in the 1960s, when everyone on his college campus was smoking pot and wearing Che Guevara T-shirts. He was interested in healthy minds and happy places. #4 The study of happiness was born out of the contemplation of happiness, which was not new. The ancient Greeks and Romans did a lot of it, as did the Jewish and Catholic faith leaders who came after them. But it was not science.