I recently had the great classist and military historian Victor Davis Hansen on my YouTube

show The Sad Truth.

Victor ended our conversation with the following.

It's so nice to see an academic who smiles.

I don't do it enough, but you do.

His comment moved me deeply.

Sure my positive demeanor is partly my nature.

But like everyone else, I've had my share of misfortune and disappointment.

I grew up literally in the middle of a war zone in Beirut, Lebanon.

I had a promising future as a soccer player kicked out from under me by a devastating injury.

I've lost coveted teaching positions because of my iconoclastic political views.

The list of personal setbacks is very long.

So I'm sure it's yours.

That's just the way it is, and we all know it.

But I refuse to let life beat me down.

I don't want to be unhappy for five minutes longer than necessary.

Life is too precious and too short.

To that end, I've given the subject of happiness a lot of thought.

Here are seven ways to maximize your happiness.

One, find the right spouse.

The most important person in life is your spouse, so choose wisely.

He or she is also the person you are going to spend the most time with.

...