Human interaction is the key force in overcoming resistance and speeding change.

Outsiders tend to be the first to recognize the inadequacies of our social institutions. But, precisely because they are outsiders, they are usually in a poor position to fix them.

In one study, old people assigned to a geriatrics team stayed independent for far longer, and were admitted to the hospital less.

I said there are at least two kinds of satisfaction, however, and the other has nothing to do with skill. It comes from human connection. It comes from making others happy, understanding them, loving them.

You may not control life's circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.

Courage is strength in the face of knowledge of what is to be feared or hoped. Wisdom is prudent strength.

In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments-which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. Measurements of people's minute-by-minute levels of pleasure and pain miss this fundamental aspect of human existence. A seemingly happy life maybe empty. A seemingly difficult life may be devoted to a great cause. We have purposes larger than ourselves.