I've come to think that flourishing consists of putting yourself in situations in which you lose self-consciousness and become fused with other people, experiences, or tasks.

Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs: the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so.

Much of life is about failure, whether we acknowledge it or not, and your destiny is profoundly shaped by how effectively you learn from and adapt to failure.

One of the things this world is finding is that emotion is the basis of reason. We really have to trust our emotions, which are much smarter than our reason in some ways.

The brain is not the mind. It is probably impossible to look at a map of brain activity and predict or even understand the emotions, reactions, hopes and desires of the mind.

Civility is the natural state for people who know how limited their own individual powers are and know, too, that they need the conversation.

It’s only useful to ask, what wisdom have you learned from your misjudgments that will help you going forward?

It is especially painful when narcissists suffer memory loss because they are losing parts of the person they love most.

Friendship allows you to see your own life but with a second sympathetic self.

Our emotions tell us what to value. They're like a little GPS system: Go that way. Don't go that way.

The daily activity that contributes most to happiness is having dinner with friends. The daily activity that detracts most from happiness is commuting. Eat more. Commute less.

God is looking for those with whom He can do the impossible - what a pity that we plan only the things that we can do by ourselves.

I think that one should view with philosophic admiration the strange paths of the libido and should investigate the purposes of its circuitous ways.

Happy people learn that happiness, like sweat, is a by-product of activity.

If there were no world, no time, no space, no condition, if none of us existed, that would be meditation.

When I've done somewhat scripted stuff, it feels a little flat. It feels like there's not much life behind it.

Since I left Chicago, I'm a lone wolf. I put on the record player and sit and try to play on the guitar. I've got five guitars here and can't play them, but I'm always whompin' around.

You know what is interesting, Condit is very conservative. He voted to post the ten commandments in schools. Yet, he himself broke the 11th commandment, 'Thou shall not put thy rod in thy staff.'

Sculpture and painting have the effect of teaching us manners and abolishing hurry.

I have, on the other hand, felt ill will from various people in the industry and the press.

We cheer everyone who goes off to Hollywood and tells American stories but telling Australian stories is the greatest thing you can do.