If you search on "does knowledge bring happiness", you'll get an array of interesting articles. Interesting, and inspiring, thanks for your thoughts John!
Look past the usual "hate our country's European roots" stuff for thought on how to deal with our changing country demographic. 
I continually wonder why European-root authors have to bring up the justification stuff, and let it obscure the achievements of those across the oceans from us. 
Always, look at strangers to our lands by who and what they are, and not how they 'stack up' to us. "The Bard" (Shakespeare) had many lessons to this in his writings, though in the quote above an earlier European author noted a flight like that singes the wings and makes one plummet to the chaos of the seas.
And heaven is truly very high, not a place one gets without the proper help, I believe.