Religions are so subtle, so complicated, so intelligent in many ways that they're not fit to be abandoned to the religious alone; they're for all of us.

The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".

He did not mean to depress us, rather to free us from expectations which inspire bitterness. It is consoling, when love has let us down, to hear that happiness was never part of the plan.

The more dignity is widely and freely available in a society, the less people want to be famous.

Our sadness won’t be of the searing kind but more like a blend of joy and melancholy: joy at the perfection we see before us, melancholy at an awareness of how seldom we are sufficiently blessed to encounter anything of its kind. The flawless object throws into perspective the mediocrity that surrounds it. We are reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and of how incomplete our lives remain.

Only as we mature does affection begin to depend on achievement.

People who readily accept the need for a gym will resist that their personalities might need some work too.