It’s affirming that we can look at any experience from the fullness of our being and get past the shame we carry.

Smiling at someone can have significant health consequences.

Seeking happiness is not the problem. The problem is that we often do not know where and how to find genuine happiness and so make the mistakes that cause suffering for ourselves & others.

When you recognize and reflect on even one good thing about yourself, you are building a bridge to a place of kindness and caring.

Never feel ashamed of your longing for happiness.

Clinging to our ideas of perfection isolates us from life and is a barrier.

For any marginalized group to change the story that society tells about them takes courage and perseverance.

The idea that traumatic residues—or unresolved stories—can be inherited is groundbreaking.

The unconscious mind is a vast repository of experiences and associations that sorts things out much faster than the slow-moving conscious mind.

Buddhism has a term for the happiness we feel at someone else’s success or good fortune. Sympathetic joy, as it is known, invites us to celebrate for others.

Even as we recognize our resentment, bitterness, or jealousy, we can also honor our own wish to be happy, to feel free.

Life is too short not to look beyond it.

Motivation is internal. It has to come from within you. Do not seek it anywhere else.

My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.

Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods.

Ive found that if you just try to make the film you want, youll find the right audience. If you try to please everyone, youre going to make really boring films.

The province of philosophy is not so much to prevent calamities befalling as to demonstrate that they are blessings when they have taken place.

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner played golf this weekend. Obama’s handicap is Joe Biden.

When I started at 9, I was working with plaster. I worked with a florist. It was a little illegal for kids to work. They would give you tips because they couldn't really give you wages.

This is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any land you know about.

Society is no comfort, to one not sociable.