Dan Buettner

“You have to know why you get up every morning.”

“Serve yourself, put the food away, then eat.”

“A long healthy life is no accident. It begins with good genes, but it also depends on good habits.”

“The newness effect of a new thing wears off in nine months to a year, but financial security can last a lifetime.”

“You rarely get satisfaction sitting in an easy chair. If you work in a garden on the other hand, and it yields beautiful tomatoes, that's a good feeling.”

“A doctor may know more than a peasant, but a peasant and a doctor know more together.”

“Black beans and soy beans are the cornerstones of longevity diets around the world.”

“Inconvenience yourself: ditch the remote, the garage door opener, the leaf-blower; buy a bike, broom, rake, and snow shovel.”

“Deepen your existing spiritual commitment.”

“The secret to longevity, as I see it, has less to do with diet, or even exercise, and more to do with the environment in which a person lives: social and physical. What do I mean by this? They live rewardingly inconvenient lives.”

“Centenarians are still living near their children and feel loved and the expectation to love. Instead of being mere recipients of care, they are contributors to the lives of their families. They grow gardens to contribute vegetables, they continue to cook and clean.”

“The longest-lived people eat a plant-based diet. They eat meat but only as a condiment or a celebration. Nothing they eat has a plastic wrapper.”

“Diet and supplements and exercise programs aren't what is achieving longevity. Having a faith-based community can add four to 14 years.”

“I know exactly what my values are and what I love to do. That's worth additional years right there. I say no to a lot of stuff that would be easy money but deviates from my meaning of life.”

“I wake up in the morning and I see that flower, with the dew on its petals, and at the way it's folding out, and it makes me happy, she said. It's important to focus on the things in the here and now, I think. In a month, the flower will be shriveled and you will miss its beauty if you don't make the effort to do it now. Your life, eventually, is the same way.”

“The luster of an experience can actually go up with time. So, learning to play a new instrument, learning a new language - those sorts of things will pay dividends for years or decades to come.”

“I live on the water. I live in a neighborhood that's consummately connected to my neighbors. I bump into them every day. I can bike to work.”

“Having a purpose and knowing exactly what your values are will add additional years to your life.”

“Eat your vegetables, have a positive outlook, be kind to people, and smile - Kamada Nakasato, 102-y/o-female fr. Okinawa”

“People who are making it to 100 live in environments where they are regularly nudged into physical activity.”