The thing about Americans, ” she said, “is that you’re very concerned about everything all the time.

If I'd waited until I was well rested to read, I never would have read anything.

I was learning that when you're with someone who is dying, you may need to celebrate the past, live the present, and mourn the future all at the same time.

That's one of the amazing things great books like this do - they don't just get you to see the world differently, they get you to look at people, the people all around you, differently.

It was the women of afghanistan, my mother believed, who-once they’d been granted access to books and education- would be the salvation of the country

I think it's because it shows that people--or hobbits, as the case may be--can find strength they didn't know they had.

...two different kinds of Japanese psychotherapies, one based on getting people to stop using feelings as an excuse for their actions and the other based on getting people to practice gratitude.

...mindfulness - it isn't a trick or a gimmick. It's being present in the moment. When I'm with you, I'm with you. Right now. That's all. No more and no less.

You can only do what you can, and what doesn't get done, just doesn't get done.

Oh, dear--did I forget to mention that you can, indeed, have it all, but you need a lot of help!

The greatest gift you can give anyone is your undivided attention...

Don't take it as a struggle. Consider it as your pursuit for the unseen rewards.

In many ways, my attachment to human freedom was completely compatible with my right to live freely as a homosexual.

How to manage a project: Limit it in scope. Make it simple. Get success. Then iterate.

I'd be nervous about skiing, wondering what I'd do if I felt shaky on top of a mountain; but other diabetics do ski, so there's no reason I couldn't.

Leadership is a choice one makes.

The solution to government surveillance is to encrypt everything.

Good poetry seems so simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

There is no escape from metre; there is only mastery.

First become a winner in life. Then it's easier to become a winner on the field.

The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume; but a good stomach excels them all.