We are wistful about the golden days of the past and dream of a distant future unclouded by necessity. But I suspect that if our inner souls were asked what in life they really missed, the answer would be primal danger and stress.

Happiness may well consist primarily of an attitude toward time.

Plans made swiftly and intuitively are likely to have flaws. Plans made carefully and comprehensively are sure to.

The reason so many promises are not kept is the same as the reason they are made in the first place.

The goal of discoverers is not to outdistance their peers, but to transcend themselves.

To be open to inspiration, one must cultivate a leaning for the problematic, a chronic attraction to things that do not totally fit, agree, or make sense. Inspired ideas are less often solutions to old problems than newly discovered or totally reformulated problems - problems 'created' like brilliant works of art.

Individuals we consider happy commonly seem complete in the present and we see them constantly in their wholeness: attentive, cheerful, open rather than closed to events, integral in the moment rather than distended across time by regret or anxiety.