10.25.2015

Truth in Fiction: Hector and the Search for Happiness


Hector and the Search for Happiness

Many people wanted to make an appointment with Hector, not just because he looked like a real psychiatrist, but because he had a gift all good doctors have and that you simply cant learn at college: he really was interested in people. (p. 1 Emphasis mine) 

Pills are a bit like sweets: not everybody likes the same ones. (p.3)

But, in reality, being unhappy might also teach him something about happiness. (p.31)

The basic mistake that people make is to think that happiness is the goal! (p.38)

Hector said that he understood, but all the same he thought that Eduardo was building his and his family's happiness on other people's misery. (p.64)

But he'd never never talked to Hector about this before, and he didn't really talk about it now, since there's no need to explain everything to a friend who's a psychiatrist (or to a friend who isn't a psychiatrist for that matter). (p.74 emphasis mine)

But, as previously mentioned, knowing and feeling are two different things, and feeling is what counts.(p.87)

Colleagues of mine who defend the second idea tend to think that happiness levels are a bit like blood pressure or weight: they may vary from time to time according to circumstances, but generally they return to the same basic level, which is different in each individual. (p.134)

That could be another lesson: Be very attentive to others. (p.149)

It's a certain way of seeing things. Cultivating your serenity and keeping hold of it whatever happens, even in the face of your own death. (p.156)

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