After just a few hours play, keeping your Sims happy might seem the most important thing in the world.

BBC: Screenshot from SimCity 4 courtesy of EA Games

Helping the musicians hear themselves and each other is the most important thing because if they are happy they are going to produce the best results.

FORBES: Connect

To fulfil its ambition of becoming the world's trading platform of choice, the most important thing the company has to do is keep the vast army of eBayers happy.

ECONOMIST: eBay

"The most important thing is I'm happy to stay as things here are moving forward, " he told BBC Radio Lancashire.

BBC: McMahon signs new deal

"The most important thing is that he learns to be happy by himself, " she said of her son, Aubane.

WSJ: Why French Parents Are Superior by Pamela Druckerman

To researchers, the pursuit of happiness--the decision to buy a Jeep Cherokee over a Chevy station wagon, a Cape Cod house versus a ranch, to chain ourselves to our desks and grind ourselves into wafers--emanates from the most important question human beings can ask themselves: What really makes us happy?

FORBES: Money, Happiness And The Pursuit Of Both

The most important aspect of the fifty percent divorce rate on our wedding day is our happy belief that we will be among the half of all married couples who will sustain one another, strengthen one another, and, enliven one another until death cleaves us apart.

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