Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.

For all its cruelties, civilization is precious, an experiment worth continuing. It is also precarious: as we climbed the ladder of progress, we kicked out the rungs below. There is no going back without catastrophe. Those who don’t like civilization, and can’t wait for it to fall on its arrogant face, should keep in mind that there is no other way to support humanity in anything like our present numbers or estate.

When the rich rob the poor it's called Business. When the poor fight back it's called Violence.

There seemed to be endless obstacles preventing me from living with my eyes open, but as I gradually followed up clue after clue it seemed that the root cause of them all was fear.

Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead. One’s thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy; one’s own past is a gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one’s emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one’s mind more keen. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true. The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigour from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live their own lives, and if you continue to be as interested in them as you were when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless they are unusually callous. I do not mean that one should be without interest in them, but one’s interest should be contemplative and, if possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional. Animals become indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves, but human beings, owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.

One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless.

Awareness is often enough to motivate change.

Simply tracking your food intake will motivate you to alter it. Merely writing down your problems may spark ideas for possible solutions.

The process starts with seeing reality clearly.

Pollution is nothing but resources we're not harvesting.

We don't raise kids - we raise people.

In vain does the chicken cross the road; Emacs is on both sides.

Another flaw in human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

The secret of happiness is very simply this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

The man who acquires easily things for which he feels only a very moderate desire concludes that the attainment of desire does not bring happiness. If he is of a philosophic disposition, he concludes that human life is essentially wretched, since the man who has all he wants is still unhappy. He forgets that to be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.

When a child is punished for their honesty, they begin to lie.

A year from now, you will wish you had started today.

The trouble is that most people want to be right. The very best people, however, want to know if they're right.

It’s easy to know if something is art. If you can’t tire of looking at it, then it’s art.

Cooking changes your relationship with food. Instead of consuming something, now you’re making it. Meals become achievements, expressions, discoveries, and relationships.