We spend our life building higher fences and stronger locks, when the gravest dangers are already inside

Some so fear the future that they suffocate the present. It's like committing suicide to avoid being murdered.

I don't want to go to Peru. "How do you know? You've never been there." I've never been to hell either and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go there.

It is often during the worst of times that we see the best of humanity–awakening within the most ordinary of us that which is most sublime. I do not believe that it is circumstance that produces such greatness any more than it is the canvas that makes the artist. Adversity merely presents the surface on which we render our souls’ most exacting likeness. It is in the darkest skies that stars are best seen.

Books are the most tolerant of friends.

Those willing to trade freedom for certainty are certain to find the cure worse than the ailment.

Joy isn't the natural response to blessings - joy is what comes from acknowledging them.