Every loss recapitulates earlier losses, but every affirmation of identity echoes earlier moments of clarity.

The critical question about regret is whether experience led to growth and new learning. Some people seem to keep on making the same mistakes, while others at least make new ones. Regret and remorse can be either paralyzing or inspiring. [p. 199]

Solutions to problems often depend upon how they're defined.

Traditionally in American society, men have been trained for both competition and teamwork through sports, while women have been reared to merge their welfare with that of the family, with fewer opportunities for either independence or other team identifications, and fewer challenges to direct competition. In effect, women have been circumscribed within that unit where the benefit of one is most easily believed to be the benefit of all.

Every loss recapitulates earlier losses, but every affirmation of identity echoes earlier moments of clarity.

The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.

Human beings do not eat nutrients, they eat food.