I could settle down into a state of equable low spirits, and resign myself to coffee.

Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

A man is lucky if he is the first love of a woman. A woman is lucky if she is the last love of a man.

The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will.' Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.

Do all the good you can and make as little fuss about it as possible.

A very little key will open a very heavy door.

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinions because we very often differ from ourselves.

It’s not about keeping up the population, it’s about passing on who we are and what we've learned, so things keep going. So we don’t just end.

Non-fiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience, is often as much about character and story and emotion as fiction is.

He was like a song I'd heard once in fragments but had been singing in my mind ever since.

I really believe hatred is not a primal emotion, in that you can't find it in nature. It's basically some kind of distortion of fear.

You have to understand the process of healing in the Age of Aquarius. What will give the healing is the flow of your soul energy.

Nobody inspired me more than Julie Andrews, who is a classically trained soprano herself.

Everybody's mainspring is different. And I want to say this - folks whose mainsprings are busted are better dead.

The Negro is the child of two cultures - Africa and America. The problem is that in the search for wholeness all too many Negroes seek to embrace only one side of their natures.

We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure.