There’s no trouble in this world so serious that it can’t be cured with a hot bath, a glass of whiskey, and the Book of Common Prayer.
The Bhagavad Gita–that ancient Indian Yogic text–says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.
Creativity itself doesn’t care at all about results – the only thing it craves is the process. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it. Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence. Love the work. Destiny will do what it wants with you, regardless.
Sometimes life is too hard to be alone, and sometimes life is too good to be alone.
Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.
To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow – this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.
Given that life is so short, do I really want to spend one-ninetieth of my remaining days on earth reading Edward Gibbon?
People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.
I met an old lady once, almost a hundred years old, and she told me, ‘There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who’s in charge?
Desiring another person is perhaps the most risky endeavor of all. As soon as you want somebody—really want him—it is as though you have taken a surgical needle and sutured your happiness to the skin of that person, so that any separation will now cause a lacerating injury.
If I am truly to become an autonomous woman, then I must take over that role of being my own guardian…I not only have to become my own husband, but I need to be my own father, too.
One must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation.
Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.
This sadness is one of the great trials of the human experiment. As far as we know, we are the only species on the planet who have been given the gift – or curse, perhaps – of awareness about our own mortality. Everything here eventually dies; we’re just the lucky ones who get to think about this fact every day.