Speaker 1: On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: We found the cassette that answers the question when was
Speaker 2: my first happiness hour? This is from January nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 2: The first Happy.
Speaker 1: Hour's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager, and
Speaker 1: it starts right now. Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 1: Here thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures courses in classic
Speaker 1: radio programs had to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. Go
Speaker 1: to Dennisprager dot com.
Speaker 2: It's heppy, happy, happy, happy, Yes it is. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 2: it's very special what I have on tap today. I'll
Speaker 2: explain in a moment. But first, but first, but first,
Speaker 2: but first, remember, folks come, hell of high water, blood, frogs, life,
Speaker 2: fermin whatever. We have the Happiness Hour on Dennis Prager's show,
Speaker 2: because the happy make the world better and the unhappy
Speaker 2: make it worse. Now, everybody, I'm listening, Yes it is.
Speaker 2: We've got video up there of families dancing to this stuff.
Speaker 2: We've got everything and if you sing along, video it
Speaker 2: and we'll put it up too. But it's a very
Speaker 2: serious subject. Actually, happiness is why I title my book
Speaker 2: on it. Happiness is a serious problem. It certainly is.
Speaker 2: Life is tough for the vast majority of human beings,
Speaker 2: and it's extremely tough for a lot. I don't know, well,
Speaker 2: I do know, actually I know. I think I know
Speaker 2: one person for whom life has been relatively easy. But
Speaker 2: I'll I will keep that name an odous this time.
Speaker 2: But over it's not me, by the way, it is
Speaker 2: not me. I would if it were me, by the way,
Speaker 2: if I had an easy life, we wouldn't have to
Speaker 2: have an happiness hour. I would not written a book,
Speaker 2: certainly not a book titled happiness is a serious problem.
Speaker 2: So what's special about today? After a great deal of searching,
Speaker 2: and we have I've recorded most of my shows for
Speaker 2: twenty nine years. We have thousands upon thousands of cassette
Speaker 2: tapes and then digital and we're eventually going to digitize.
Speaker 2: Thanks to another great man in Nebraska and one great
Speaker 2: one in California found it, Alan Breeze, and we found
Speaker 2: the cassette that answers the question when was my first
Speaker 2: happiness hour? And it was January what twenty ninth, nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety nine. So here it is now obviously that you
Speaker 2: don't hear the theme song there wasn't chosen yet, So
Speaker 2: here is the actual And by the way, this is
Speaker 2: the first time, well it's the second time I'm hearing
Speaker 2: the first few minutes. I have not heard this. This
Speaker 2: is as new to me as it is to you,
Speaker 2: unless you heard it that day, and remember it. I didn't.
Speaker 2: I don't. This is from January nineteen ninety nine, the
Speaker 2: first Happy Hour pil Ladies and gentlemen. The music introduces
Speaker 2: a new dimension to the Dennis Prager program Happy Hour
Speaker 2: on the Dennis Prager Show. It's a fun theme that
Speaker 2: it has occurred to me that some of you think
Speaker 2: that all I care about is good and evil, right
Speaker 2: and wrong, truth and lies, clarity and non clarity, and
Speaker 2: you don't know the other sides of me, and I
Speaker 2: feel cheated and cheating you now here. I spend ten
Speaker 2: years writing a book on happiness, and I never even
Speaker 2: talk about the subject on this show. And that's crazy. So, folks,
Speaker 2: welcome to the Happy Hour. By the way, we remained
Speaker 2: it Happiness Hour over the time, over the course of time.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, we won't do it again. I love that lot.
Speaker 2: If it fails, we won't do it again. I had
Speaker 2: no idea how this would go over. I remember my thinking,
Speaker 2: and I really I remember it vividly. Maybe people will
Speaker 2: think this is unbelievably superficial. People might think that what
Speaker 2: is this doing on a serious talk show. Nobody else
Speaker 2: does anything even remotely like it. This is not your field, Dennis.
Speaker 2: You know me. If some psychologist wants to go on
Speaker 2: radio and talk about happiness, that's fine. I also had
Speaker 2: this in my mind that happiness is a selfish pursuit.
Speaker 2: So here I am a guy who wants a more
Speaker 2: decent and moral world. Why am I spending an hour
Speaker 2: every week on something that's just selfish? You have no idea,
Speaker 2: you really don't. How much went on in my mind
Speaker 2: against having this idea, this to come to fruition of
Speaker 2: a of a what I call then happy hour but
Speaker 2: now happiness hour. And when I just said, can you
Speaker 2: just possibly move back twenty seconds, when I said, if
Speaker 2: this doesn't work out, you know, we'll just drop it,
Speaker 2: I was thinking aloud, here here we go again, welcome
Speaker 2: to the happy hour. And if this fails, we won't
Speaker 2: do it again. It's as simple as that. But I uh,
Speaker 2: I'd like to share with you on this hour and
Speaker 2: have you ask and comment on your own happiness issues
Speaker 2: the problem being happy. By the way, does anybody know
Speaker 2: what this music is? Anybody know? Well? Yeah, West SoundHound,
Speaker 2: But with the talking over it deflect, I'd be very
Speaker 2: curious to try it out. All right, continue happy, Maybe
Speaker 2: a listener does. So today I'm going to talk to you.
Speaker 2: I'm going to open up with one of the ideas
Speaker 2: that I could bring to your attention. You know, one
Speaker 2: of the reasons a lot of people are unhappy. Why
Speaker 2: because they think that everybody else is happier than they are.
Speaker 2: Good point, which is pretty disgusting when you think about it. Oh,
Speaker 2: I get miserable thinking about all the happy people around,
Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen. May I tell you how we sabotage
Speaker 2: our happiness in life? Well, be do in many ways,
Speaker 2: but let me just tell you one right now. We
Speaker 2: compare ourselves to people we are sure are happier than
Speaker 2: we are, and then we get miserable. I can give
Speaker 2: you example after example of this. I uh, oh, you
Speaker 2: do it all the time. Do you compare your happiness
Speaker 2: to people you think are less happy? Nope, you compare
Speaker 2: yourself to people you think are more happy. And now
Speaker 2: remember now, remember this is nineteen ninety nine and I
Speaker 2: had just spend, as you heard, ten years. In fact,
Speaker 2: it was so long. It took so long for me
Speaker 2: to write the Happiness Book that I gave the money
Speaker 2: back to Random House because I didn't have it in
Speaker 2: on time, actually paid back the advance, and then HarperCollins
Speaker 2: picked it up. And I've been with HarperCollins since. And
Speaker 2: my next book is still the last. Best hope is
Speaker 2: my next book, and that it will be HarperCollins. But
Speaker 2: that was Remember this is the culmination of massive amounts
Speaker 2: of both talking in speeches not on radio, and writing.
Speaker 2: So here we continue, and this is a big one.
Speaker 2: I'm fascinated that I picked as my first topic. We
Speaker 2: compare ourselves to people we think are happier than us.
Speaker 2: I think it's one of the big five that is
Speaker 2: so human to do. You know, we everybody does it.
Speaker 2: The guys who are on the Forbes four hundred wealthiest
Speaker 2: Americans don't compare themselves to the three hundred million Americans
Speaker 2: poorer than them. They compare themselves to the one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty six ahead of them on the Forbes list.
Speaker 2: That is the way it works, my friends, That is
Speaker 2: the way it works, we continue, or very rarely are they.
Speaker 2: Let me give you a great quote. This quote will
Speaker 2: change your life. It's not for me. It's a woman
Speaker 2: named Helen tu Lushkin who made this up. But if
Speaker 2: you memorize this quote, you will immediately be a happier person.
Speaker 2: If comparing yourself to people you think are happier is
Speaker 2: part of your misery, and that is this. I will
Speaker 2: even use a reverberant sound to impact it even greater.
Speaker 2: The only people I know who are happy are people
Speaker 2: I don't know. Well, we need a great line, and
Speaker 2: you said, the only people I know who are happy.
Speaker 2: The only happy people I know are people I don't know. Well.
Speaker 2: By the way, folks, that is one of the great
Speaker 2: lines of world history. And I can say it this.
Speaker 2: I didn't come up with it. The great late Helen
Speaker 2: tu Lushkin did. And it's worth putting over your bathroom
Speaker 2: mirror to see it every day. The only happy people
Speaker 2: I know are people I don't know. Well. She came
Speaker 2: out with that spontaneously when I was in high school,
Speaker 2: and it is amazing. It's stuck with me. You know
Speaker 2: what sticks with me? Ideas dialogue doesn't. And I paid
Speaker 2: a big price. Events don't dialogue, but ideas stay with me.
Speaker 2: And I was in high school when she said it.
Speaker 2: Her son, Joseph Tulushkin today one of the pre eminent
Speaker 2: Jewish thinkers and writers and biblical literacy, Jewish literacy, I
Speaker 2: mean a whole like a dozen books. Anyway, we were
Speaker 2: in her kitchen. We were talking about kids in our
Speaker 2: class we thought were happy. She closed the refrigerator door
Speaker 2: and said, boys, let me tell you something. The only
Speaker 2: happy people I know are people I don't know well.
Speaker 2: And it's so true because as soon as you know
Speaker 2: anybody well, you know how much pain they have in
Speaker 2: their life. It's if you don't know them well, you
Speaker 2: don't know. We'll be back one eighth Prager seven seven six.
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom. We'll continue right after this.
Speaker 2: Oh you love No, Back to more wisdom. When you're crying,
Speaker 2: you bring on the rid right, stop your silence? Well
Speaker 2: to be happy? Then where is smiling? Keep on smiling?
Speaker 3: Smile?
Speaker 2: Turn the wisefoodstorage dot Com studios may emergency meals at
Speaker 2: the best prices wisefood storage dot Com. I'm Dennis Prager.
Speaker 2: The Happiness Hour. We unearthed my first Happiness Hour then
Speaker 2: called happy hour. From let's see it would be twelve
Speaker 2: almost thirteen, No, twelve and a half years ago. January
Speaker 2: ninety nine, ninety nine is when my book on happiness
Speaker 2: came out. It was a gamble, a big gamble. What
Speaker 2: to you now is a given? Oh Dennis in his
Speaker 2: happiness Hour? I mean to be honest. That's the first
Speaker 2: thing most people who meet me in the street or
Speaker 2: at a speech say, I love your happiness hour, and
Speaker 2: but you like so much in life. You take a
Speaker 2: gamble with you flirt with failure in order to have
Speaker 2: a big success. I had no idea that this would
Speaker 2: succeed none, And you heard me say, look, if this
Speaker 2: doesn't work, we don't do it again. I would have
Speaker 2: been absolutely unsurprised if I didn't get a single call,
Speaker 2: or if the only calls I got were Dennis, come on,
Speaker 2: you talk about serious subjects. What is this a happy hour?
Speaker 2: What are you at a bar? Right? That's the way
Speaker 2: people associated happy hour. In fact, I used to say
Speaker 2: happy hour is the only one you don't get anebriated
Speaker 2: in and you still leave happier. In fact, you do
Speaker 2: leave happier. So I be curious when you first met
Speaker 2: The Happiness Hour one eight Praeger seven seven six and
Speaker 2: what I'm fou I'm listening for the first time. I
Speaker 2: have not heard any of this. This I purposely didn't want.
Speaker 2: I want this to be as spontaneous for me as
Speaker 2: it is for you. And I picked a great subject
Speaker 2: for the first broadcast on happiness, and that is that
Speaker 2: we compare ourselves to others that we think are happier
Speaker 2: than us. Oh, continue about it. Everybody that you know well,
Speaker 2: you know how much pain and unhappiness they have had
Speaker 2: in their lives. Right. It's only people you don't know
Speaker 2: well that you assume have been much freer of pain
Speaker 2: and unhappiness than you have. But as soon as you
Speaker 2: get to know people, I'll never forget. This was really
Speaker 2: a dramatic moment for me. I know this. And by
Speaker 2: the way, the moment you really know this, the moment
Speaker 2: you really know this, you'll never be jealous again. And
Speaker 2: jealousy is one of the greatest obstacles to happiness in
Speaker 2: the human condition. People are jealous and they get unhappy.
Speaker 2: Jealousy is totally subversive. But there's nothing to be jealous of.
Speaker 2: But let me tell you how we could play tricks
Speaker 2: on ourselves. I am very brain centered, and I know
Speaker 2: what I'm telling you to be true and I have
Speaker 2: incorporated into my life. But listen to this. A few
Speaker 2: years ago, I was on a book tour for the
Speaker 2: book prior to my book on Happiness, and I was
Speaker 2: in a I won't say what city, because it's possible
Speaker 2: it could be traced to. You know, somebody listening could
Speaker 2: figure it out, and I don't want to betray a confidence.
Speaker 2: But I was on a major city in the South,
Speaker 2: major American city. I was on this talk show during
Speaker 2: the day, and this talk show host was in his thirties,
Speaker 2: very successful, prime time show. Good looking guy. He has
Speaker 2: a picture in the studio of his wife and children.
Speaker 2: She's beautiful, the kids are beautiful. This guy is happy.
Speaker 2: He's telling me how much he loves living in this city.
Speaker 2: And I think to myself, which is the way most
Speaker 2: of us do think, I'm thinking, my God, I think
Speaker 2: I may have met a guy who has everything well.
Speaker 2: We continue the interview and then there is of course
Speaker 2: a commercial break. During the commercial break, we start talking
Speaker 2: about our mutual love of computers and how we both
Speaker 2: love the Internet, and he says to me, Dennis, I
Speaker 2: can't tell you how valuable I find the Internet. And
Speaker 2: I say, really, me too. He said, well, let me
Speaker 2: tell you. I type in multiple sclerosis and I have
Speaker 2: learned so much about that disease. I said, well, why
Speaker 2: did Why do you concern yourself with multiple sclerosis? Is
Speaker 2: because my wife has it? And I tell you, I
Speaker 2: have the chills as I relate that story to you,
Speaker 2: because I remember thinking, Dennis, you fool. You violated your
Speaker 2: own knowledge, your own principles of happiness in thinking, well,
Speaker 2: here's a guy bereft of problems. No one is no one,
Speaker 2: no one, no one, no one. People, even if they
Speaker 2: don't have a wife with multiple sclerosis or a child
Speaker 2: who's ill or something, people have demons. Every single human
Speaker 2: on earth has demons. Every one of you listening has demons.
Speaker 2: Something in you that is that that is self destructive,
Speaker 2: that pushes you into into into arenas that will hurt you.
Speaker 2: For this one, it's in the area of emotions for
Speaker 2: this one, in sex for this one, in booze for
Speaker 2: this one, in drugs for this one, in money for
Speaker 2: this one, in power, for this one, it's insecurity. For
Speaker 2: this one, it's in the physical realm. I mean, it's endless,
Speaker 2: so we compare ourselves to We'll tell you another reason.
Speaker 2: People compare themselves to others and think others are happier.
Speaker 2: All around you are images of happy people. Right. Everybody
Speaker 2: is smiling in ads, everybody is smiling on billboards. Do
Speaker 2: you ever see a picture of your grandparents. I'll bet
Speaker 2: you don't have one picture of a smiling grandparent. If
Speaker 2: you're certainly, if you're my age generation, let me remind
Speaker 2: you you're listening to what we finally found. The first
Speaker 2: broadcast of The Happiness Hour January nineteen ninety nine. Can't
Speaker 2: continue you see any pictures. I was just watching the
Speaker 2: Civil War on PBS on tape. It's not on PBS now.
Speaker 2: I bought an on tape series. By the way, let
Speaker 2: me explain for some of the younger listeners. Prior to Netflix,
Speaker 2: people used tape to watch movies. It would move across
Speaker 2: from one spool to another spool. It wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 2: You actually now you can't use it with me, Sean,
Speaker 2: It's amazing. The president feels powerful when he enters Air
Speaker 2: Force one. Sean feels powerful when he puts on the
Speaker 2: laugh tracks. We continue gotten all these awards, correctly so,
Speaker 2: deservedly so. And all the pictures from the Civil War,
Speaker 2: not one person is smiling. And I don't mean wounded soldiers,
Speaker 2: I mean before they became soldiers, after they got home.
Speaker 2: Not one person in any picture, not one general, not
Speaker 2: one private, one civilian, is smiling because it never occurred
Speaker 2: to them. Why would I smile for a picture? Who
Speaker 2: walks around smiling? People who walk around smiling all the
Speaker 2: time are institutionalized, right right, So we walk around thinking
Speaker 2: these other people are all happier than us, and that
Speaker 2: makes you more unhappy. This is the happy Hour, a
Speaker 2: new innovation on my show. Maybe we'll do it third
Speaker 2: hour Fridays. We'll see how it goes. A lot of
Speaker 2: you are calling, which is already a semi precious stone,
Speaker 2: and it's important stuff. I have come to realize how
Speaker 2: critical happiness is. It took me a long time, my friends.
Speaker 2: It took me a long time to realize that happiness
Speaker 2: was not just a selfish psychological pursuit, but a moral obligation.
Speaker 2: One eighth Prager seven seven six The Happiness Hour.
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 4: It's so important to make someone happy, Make just one.
Speaker 1: Now come back to more of Dennis Prager's wisdom to you.
Speaker 5: You sing to.
Speaker 4: One, smile to change one, fights one of one.
Speaker 2: Your you're everything too. That's that's what a man wants
Speaker 2: to be everything to his woman. There was more wisdom
Speaker 2: in that song than in the entire departments of of
Speaker 2: women's and gender studies at all of the universities put together.
Speaker 2: If all you knew was what Jimmy Duranti sang, you
Speaker 2: could lead a better life than getting a PhD in
Speaker 2: gender studies or women's studies in terms of interaction with
Speaker 2: the opposite sex. I say it with no joy, but anyway,
Speaker 2: that's why we found out breaking university to undo what
Speaker 2: most universities do. Welcome back to the Happiness Hour and
Speaker 2: the It's a real special one today because I am
Speaker 2: playing for you the first Happiness Hour I ever did
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine. Let me take some calls here and
Speaker 2: it's fun to listen to. That's the reason I have
Speaker 2: not heard it, so I have no idea what I'm
Speaker 2: about to say, but I'm pretty much of the same
Speaker 2: opinion as then. Here is someone who claims to have
Speaker 2: heard that first show, Michael in Prescott, Arizona. Hi, Michael, Hi, Well.
Speaker 6: I claim, and I actually did hear it.
Speaker 2: How do you know you heard the first?
Speaker 6: I don't know. You've talked about Missus Celushkin and that
Speaker 6: insight more than once, so you know, as possible, I'm
Speaker 6: just sort of retrofitting. But I just remember because you're
Speaker 6: the only person that I had ever heard of until
Speaker 6: then to talk about happiness and that I went to
Speaker 6: law school with Michael Josephson, by the way, and I
Speaker 6: didn't know him, but you know he came on to
Speaker 6: be prominent.
Speaker 2: In the ethics arena.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And but I had never heard anyone before you
Speaker 6: talk about that, and I think that's probably I would
Speaker 6: say that your greatest insight, the idea of that that
Speaker 6: people compare, no matter what they feel like, they always
Speaker 6: think somebody else is better off and emotionally, and never
Speaker 6: heard any And I just nineteen ninety nine. That's not
Speaker 6: that long ago. I've been listening to you for many
Speaker 6: more years than that, and so I do remember that program.
Speaker 6: I was in Fullerton in those days, and so hurt
Speaker 6: on Caro La or the previous station wherever you were.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you, I'm very touched. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: It is a big one, that comparing, and it's in
Speaker 2: the book, by the way, one of the chapters in
Speaker 2: the book. Of course, I've done so many shows. How
Speaker 2: many shows? Does that mean? If I started in January
Speaker 2: ninety nine? So yeah, figure forty forty five even oh, okay,
Speaker 2: just for okay, so four hundred and forty four hundred
Speaker 2: and forty yeah, some even closer to five hundred, yeah,
Speaker 2: five hundred shows, and I would say that we've had
Speaker 2: about three hundred topics. So obviously vast numbers of these
Speaker 2: are not in the Book on Happiness. Let's go to
Speaker 2: another call here and thank you, Michael. I appreciate that
Speaker 2: a lot. Let's go to uh, let's stay in Arizona
Speaker 2: for a moment. Phoenix and Mike. Hello, Mike, Dennis.
Speaker 7: Prager, Hi, Dennis, how are you today?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 7: Thanks, we're calling you doctor Happiness.
Speaker 2: That's nice. I like that title.
Speaker 7: I did hear your first program. Now that i'm hearing
Speaker 7: it again, I've been listening to you for a long time,
Speaker 7: and I use some of your teachings on my children.
Speaker 7: My twenty one year old just got married and when
Speaker 7: she was twelve, she came to me and said, Daddy,
Speaker 7: I'm bored. And I said, well, honey, then you must
Speaker 7: be a boring person. And she goes, that's not very nice,
Speaker 7: and I said, honey, you can choose to do anything
Speaker 7: you want. You could read a book, you could call
Speaker 7: your friends, you could ride ther bike. But you come
Speaker 7: to me to make you happy. You need to decide
Speaker 7: this on your own. So she went and she read
Speaker 7: a book. And then two weeks later, the best part
Speaker 7: of this whole story, she comes back says Daddy, I'm
Speaker 7: never mind, and.
Speaker 2: She I love it. I love it. Well, I get
Speaker 2: credit for that, and I am very, very delighted that
Speaker 2: my kids stopped I am bored. They gave up on
Speaker 2: that so fast, just like his daughter, because that would
Speaker 2: be by Lyne. Then you're boring. There was no excuse
Speaker 2: for being born in In the world in which we live,
Speaker 2: you're in solitary confinement or or I don't know, you
Speaker 2: just collect cow dung all day in medieval Europe. Maybe
Speaker 2: you have a right to say I'm bored, but there's
Speaker 2: no right to say that in the world in which
Speaker 2: we live. In the opportunities that are available to us,
Speaker 2: take more of your calls, and we'll hear who the
Speaker 2: first caller ever was to that show. And we come
Speaker 2: back on the Dennis Prager Happiness Hour.
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless Wisdom. We'll continue right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.
Speaker 2: You'll never hear this particular one again. We found the
Speaker 2: recording of my first Happiness Hour. This is the Happiness
Speaker 2: Hour the Dennis Praguer Show, every Friday, second hour. I
Speaker 2: gave it a try twelve years ago, twelve and a
Speaker 2: half years ago, and even said if this doesn't work, well,
Speaker 2: we just won't do it again. But it worked. And
Speaker 2: my first subject was people comparing themselves to others, and
Speaker 2: we compare ourselves always to those we think are happier
Speaker 2: than us, who've had a less difficult life, and then
Speaker 2: makes us even more unhappy. Continue, please, I've come to
Speaker 2: realize how critical happiness is in people's lives. Cindy in
Speaker 2: your car, thanks for calling him. You are indeed okay.
Speaker 8: I think this is a great idea good anyway. My
Speaker 8: comment is that I am a very happy person, and
Speaker 8: I think that people get turned off when you're you're
Speaker 8: too happy, and you know, thinking about the story. You
Speaker 8: just told that when you're looking at someone's life, you
Speaker 8: know everyone has demons. Well, that's also part of figuring
Speaker 8: out that nothing's perfect and life isn't perfect, so you
Speaker 8: have to just make the best of it. And I
Speaker 8: think also people get turned off with your if you're
Speaker 8: too unhappy. Whenever someone goes to something, I'm sure you
Speaker 8: know everyone has had a bad time, right.
Speaker 2: So people have turned off if you're very unhappy or
Speaker 2: if you're very happy. Well, that's a very good question.
Speaker 2: In other words, it's easy to turn people off, all right.
Speaker 2: I was curious to know what the first call would
Speaker 2: be in it, and now that was the that was?
Speaker 2: That was it? Cindy, wherever Cindy is. Cindy, if you're listening,
Speaker 2: love to hear from you. We'll give you some sort
Speaker 2: of prize. Was Scilla, uh Alaska? And Curtis. Hello, Curtis,
Speaker 2: Dennis Prager.
Speaker 9: Heh, Dennis, it's very nice to talk to you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 9: So what I was telling your the first I just
Speaker 9: spoke with is that I heard it, oh several years
Speaker 9: ago that you should be kind to everyone you meet
Speaker 9: because everyone you meet is in a great battle. And
Speaker 9: it's similar to what you spoke. Cal Go about your
Speaker 9: friend who thought you had the most happy person ever met.
Speaker 9: So that's what I do. I try to do. It's
Speaker 9: not always that, but be kind. Everyone's in a great battle.
Speaker 2: Excellent. When did you first become acquainted with this Happiness Hour?
Speaker 9: Well in just the last few months. I've been listening
Speaker 9: to you for a couple of years, but maybe the
Speaker 9: Happy Hour didn't really connect. But I've paid more attention
Speaker 9: to it in your recent months.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, thank you for that. By the way, there
Speaker 2: are a few people, and then it is few. It's
Speaker 2: overwhelmingly popular. But I periodically will get an email and
Speaker 2: it's always from a guy. I've never gotten this from
Speaker 2: a woman, and that is that is love your show.
Speaker 2: Listen everything except the Happiness Hour. I'm a political junkie,
Speaker 2: and I always wonder is that person introspective? It's not,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't hold it against the person, obviously,
Speaker 2: but I just wonder, is if you are only interested
Speaker 2: in politics, and there are such people right and left,
Speaker 2: then obviously I have to believe you're not terribly introspective
Speaker 2: of what is going on inside of me. And I
Speaker 2: can't live such a life. The micro and the Macro
Speaker 2: are both incredibly important. Alrighty, let's go to Chad in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, California. Hello, Chad Dennis Prager. Hello, Okay, thanks great.
Speaker 10: I was calling the quote the only I only.
Speaker 2: The only happy people I know are people I don't know.
Speaker 10: Well, right, I disagree with that. I feel that I
Speaker 10: know quite a few people that are happy. I myself
Speaker 10: am very happy. I don't have a perfect everybody has problem.
Speaker 2: Well, that's what she meant, though, that's what you see.
Speaker 2: You're fully right. If you take her literally, then of
Speaker 2: course it's not true. There are happy people obviously, but
Speaker 2: that's not what she really meant. She really meant to say,
Speaker 2: don't be fooled. Please know that everybody has real burdens
Speaker 2: and pains. Okay, okay, so that's good. I'm glad you called,
Speaker 2: and I'm glad to make that clear. Most of the
Speaker 2: time when I have given that quote, when I have
Speaker 2: cited that quote, I think the live audiences. I can
Speaker 2: never tell from the radio, but a live audience will laugh.
Speaker 2: And it's not because they don't think that there were
Speaker 2: any happy people on earth. They laugh because of the
Speaker 2: deeper truth of it. That don't get fooled by thinking
Speaker 2: this other person is happy, go lucky and they have
Speaker 2: a painless life. There's no such thing. Okay, and let's
Speaker 2: go to Orange, California and Diane Diane Dennis Prager.
Speaker 5: Hi, Hi, Dennis.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 5: I just wanted to tell you I remember distinctly the
Speaker 5: First Happiness Hour because I have multiple sclerosis. Oh that example.
Speaker 5: I went, you know what, Dennis is right, and I'm
Speaker 5: happy anyway. But something like that is just not going
Speaker 5: to make you unhappy. It's how you react to it.
Speaker 2: There was a quote that I cited recently. A very
Speaker 2: popular sportscaster died and he had I think, some terrible
Speaker 2: cancer and he said I quoted him on the show
Speaker 2: this past week. I think it was in the obituary
Speaker 2: they mentioned this. He said, what is it? Life is
Speaker 2: eighty percent what is given to you and no, No,
Speaker 2: twenty percent is what you're dealt and eighty percent is
Speaker 2: how you react to it.
Speaker 5: You can't control the wind, but you can't adjust your sails.
Speaker 2: God, there must be so many sayings that say that
Speaker 2: same thing. Well, that's very touching to me that you
Speaker 2: have multiple sclerosis and heard the first show.
Speaker 5: Yes, and I know you've you've told that story since,
Speaker 5: but even then it just hit me like a ton.
Speaker 3: Of bricks and I, well, God bless you, and I
Speaker 3: mean that well, hm.
Speaker 2: You know what I would like I would like to
Speaker 2: know how many sayings there are that make that same point.
Speaker 2: It's not I'll give you another one. It's not the
Speaker 2: it's not the cards you're dealt it's how you play them,
Speaker 2: you know. So we now have the wind in the sails.
Speaker 2: Any of you know more said even come on in
Speaker 2: on the on the phone or said via an email.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show. I played for
Speaker 2: you today the first Happiness Hour. We found it and
Speaker 2: it's been a lot of fun. And let me take
Speaker 2: as many call as I can before the end of
Speaker 2: this particular hour celebrating twelve and a half years consecutively
Speaker 2: of the Happiness Hour. And let's see here Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Speaker 2: and Marianne Dennis Prager.
Speaker 11: Hi, Dennis, good afternoon. It's a pleasure to speak with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 11: I've been listening to your show for about three years.
Speaker 11: Two thousand and eight got me started. And if there
Speaker 11: was one hour of radio time I have a week,
Speaker 11: it would have to be the Happiness Hour. Wherever I am,
Speaker 11: I try to tune into it because it really does
Speaker 11: make a difference in my life. And the happy people
Speaker 11: really do make the world happier and make.
Speaker 2: The world better, make the world better better.
Speaker 11: They do make the world better, that's right. And one
Speaker 11: of my happiest friends is a woman who lost her
Speaker 11: husband quite unexpectedly eighteen months ago, and yet every day
Speaker 11: she greets with a smile and the decision to choose
Speaker 11: to be happy, and it's a great blessing to me.
Speaker 11: One of my favorite happiness quotes is by Ray Bradbury.
Speaker 11: I'm sure you're familiar with it. You can make yourself
Speaker 11: happy or miserable. It's the same amount of effort.
Speaker 2: That's terrific, you know. I'll tell you the truth. We
Speaker 2: ought to collect some of these because you know, the
Speaker 2: collective wisdom of the audience is infinitely greater than mine.
Speaker 2: And so I defer to you in that sense, and
Speaker 2: I would love to have you send me some intelligent quotes.
Speaker 2: One of our favorite and we have it on the
Speaker 2: happiness video at Prager University, is Lincoln's And we decide
Speaker 2: what is it? We decide to be as happy as
Speaker 2: we know it's no, no, my favorite quote, and I'm
Speaker 2: walling it anyway. It's essentially that we decide whether to
Speaker 2: be happy or not. It's as simple as that, and
Speaker 2: it's very that's obviously critical. Carmen in Paris, California.
Speaker 12: High Yeah, my name is Carmen, and I like to
Speaker 12: hear your show is beautiful, and especially I learn more
Speaker 12: from a Hysland because he loves your show. So I
Speaker 12: learn more of the language because I hear your voice
Speaker 12: and I two classes. I get more provision in the language.
Speaker 2: But you know that kind of well, well, that means
Speaker 2: a lot to me. A lot of immigrants have told
Speaker 2: me that they have learned a lot of English through
Speaker 2: listening to the show, and I think of that all
Speaker 2: the time, and I try. It's one of the reasons
Speaker 2: I try to speak as clearly and not too fast
Speaker 2: as possible. So on this anniversary, forgive me if I
Speaker 2: didn't get to your call. It was a once in
Speaker 2: a lifetime. A review of the first show, now call
Speaker 2: in on Anything under the Sun, Lighters and Gentleman. The
Speaker 2: Music introduces a new dimension to the Dennis Prager program.
Speaker 1: On tomorrow's episode of Dennis Teaches the Torah.
Speaker 4: A lot of people believe that the purpose of life
Speaker 4: is having children, and in a Jewish life, there's a
Speaker 4: particular sense of nah us from children. Many of you
Speaker 4: have heard the term nahus. It's both Yiddish and Hebrew.
Speaker 4: It means joy and pride in some combination thereof. And
Speaker 4: that the purpose of life is to nothus from your children.
Speaker 4: And that's not true, and woe unto the child whose
Speaker 4: parents feel that way.
Speaker 1: Come back tomorrow for Dennis Prager's signature series. In the
Speaker 1: first five books of the Bible, Dennis teaches the Torah.
Speaker 1: This has been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit Dennisprager
Speaker 1: dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses
Speaker 1: in classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.