A happy family is but an earlier heaven.

Enjoyment is an incredible energizer to the human spirit.

Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

Love is the one wild card.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

The kindness that’s been shown to me, by doctors as well as my family and my friends, it’s really saved my life.

And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don’t think anyone in my family would really feel I’d done them an injustice by saying that. We didn’t see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.

I always wanted a family.

I don’t think there’s an option for me to fall in love slowly or at medium speed. I either do, or I don’t.

Acting is just a way of making a living, the family is life.

At the end of the day, we started playing football because we loved it.

It’s hard for anybody who’s been with me not to feel starved for affection when I’m making love to my ideas. Maybe it’s not meant for me to settle down and be married.

Funny is the world I live in. You’re funny, I’m interested. You’re not funny, I’m not interested.

Understanding is a two-way street.

It always seems odd to me that the fundamental laws of physics, when discovered, can appear in so many different forms that are not apparently identical at first, but, with a little mathematical fiddling, you can show the relationship.

I like to talk about my obsession with french fries because I don’t want people to think that ‚Let’s Move‘ is about complete, utter deprivation. It’s about moderation and real-life changes and ideas that really work for families.

Because of a great love, one is courageous.

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Marriage is scary to me, man.

In married life three is company and two none.

When I was nine years old, living on the south side of Chicago, my father was a minister and my mother used to scrub floors. I had seven brothers and four sisters. I told my mama, ‚One of these days I’m going to be big and strong and buy you a beautiful house.‘ That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, is to take care of my mother.

I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.

When I cook for my family on Christmas, I make feijoada, a South American dish of roasted and smoked meats like ham, pork, beef, lamb, and bacon – all served with black beans and rice. It’s festive but different.

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.

Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.

Where there is love there is life.

Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you. I always was a rich person because money’s not related to happiness.

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.

You know what, I’m very attracted to someone who makes me laugh and is that charming. Really, I could be charmed by anyone. I’m just a sucker for somebody that is charming.

My father wasn’t perfect. He had a temper. I took some of that. He would snap, but the older he got, he started calming down. He learned about life, but the thing that he taught my whole family was that family was the most important thing and, no matter what, if a family member needs you, you go and help them out; you get there.

I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.

I was never a boy magnet at school. There was always the girl all the guys liked and wanted to date, but it was never me.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

I’ve always loved the fans in Scotland and have a little Scottish blood of my own.

It has been hard for me to find it, but I have found love.

I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity.

MySpace is my wife… Facebook is my mistress.

Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness.

A lot of the time when I write about the person that I love, I feel like I’m writing about New York.

It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.

I think about the milestones from my childhood and what it will be like to watch our kids go through them. Taking Riley to her first day of school was a whirlwind. I can’t imagine what middle school is going to be like, and high school, and graduation.

Exaggeration is a blood relation to falsehood and nearly as blamable.

I think in defeat you grope for things that are happy, and it’s hard.

Regarding marriage, it – somehow, it didn’t happen. One fellow in such a big family not getting married is not an issue.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

No one will ever win the battle of the sexes; there’s too much fraternizing with the enemy.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.

But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

In one day, I have times where I’m feeling great, I feel like I love my life, and then 2:30 rolls around and I’m the angriest man alive. My wife sees it.

You can’t have it all, all at once. Who – man or woman – has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me ‚understand‘ something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences… everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate. She was the most generous, loving – she’s better than me.

The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It’s inflammatory.