Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.

The degree of sympathy we feel regarding another's fiasco is directly proportional to how easy or difficult it is for us to imagine ourselves, under like circumstances, making a similar mistake.

The longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life.

After 40 (old age for most of man's history), one should strive to be more or less packed and ready to go were the end call to come.

In the oasis complex, the thirsty man images he sees water, palm trees, and shade not because he has evidence for the belief, but because he has a need for it. Desperate needs bring about a hallucination of their solution: thirst hallucinates water, the need for love hallucinates a prince or princess. The oasis complex is never a complete delusion: the man in the desert does see something on the horizon. It is just that the palms have withered, the well is dry, and the place is infected with locusts.

Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.

People who go on to be writers are those who can forgive themselves the horror of the first draft.