145 Quotes by Meghan Daum

Analyzing data from 79 men and women who wore inconspicuous devices that recorded some of their conversations over the course of four days, researchers from Washington University and the University of Arizona found a correlation between feelings of well-being and the amount of time spent talking every day. Moreover, the more substantive your conversations, the happier you're likely to be. In other words, heart-to-hearts trump small talk. (LA Times, "A lof of happy talk", March 11, 2010, A21.)

There's more than one way to be a person. Actually, there are more than two or three ways. You'd think that was obvious, but I find that often it is not. The world is essentially a collection of teams. Life is a process of deciding which ones we're going to join.

Life is mostly an exercise in being something other than what we used to be while remaining fundamentally — and sometimes maddeningly — who we are.

Novelty has a way of intensifying memory. The less often you do something, the deeper the memory burrows in.

The path of least resistance has a lot going for it. The comfort zone isn't where you lose yourself. It's where you find yourself.

Given the correlation between aging and death, declaring that you can’t stand today’s music might actually mark the first stage of the dying process.

In the history of the world, a whole story has never been told.

My goal in life is to be content. By that I don't mean "fine" or "basically satisfied." I don't mean settling. I mean, for last of better terms, feeling like I'm in the right life.

At some point in my early forties I realized that my primary goal in just about any verbal exchange is to lighten the mood.