I needed to change the lens through which I viewed everything familiar.

There's also something about your bed; it's sort of a symbol of yourself and of your marriage, if you're married. Making your bed doesn't seem to be an important thing in a happy life, and yet it can be that tiny foothold into a more orderly life that sometimes people need.

We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.

The days are long, but the years are short.

You really have to begin by figuring out what kind of person you are. The tip is to really take a look at yourself.

... one flaw throws the loveliness of [everything else] into focus. I remember reading that Shakers deliberately introduced a mistake into the things they made, to show that man shouldn't aspire to the perfection of God. Flawed can be more perfect than perfection.

The most reliable predictor of not being lonely is the amount of contact with women. Time spent with men doesn't make a difference.