Maintaining the illusion that I am in control is futile, lonely, and in the long run more always costly than the effort is worth.

He may only get to keep that which he is willing to let go of.

Each person's only hope for improving his lot rests on recognizing the true nature of his or her basic personality, surrendering to it, and becoming who he or she really is.

The unlived life isn't worth examining.

One can choose life, or choose death. Having chosen life, I must live it as it is.

We all live in a tragicomic situation, a life that is in part absurd simply because it is not of our own making. We are born into a disordered world, into a family we did not choose, into circumstances we would have had somewhat improved, and we are even called by a name we did not select. (40)

He prefers the security of known misery to the misery of unfamiliar insecurity.