He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.

He that has not got a wife is not yet a complete man.

Every once in a while I get the highly inappropriate proposal which is like, ‚Wow, Really! You don’t even know me and I don’t know you at all, and you want that to happen? Tonight? Ok, I get off work at 7.30.‘

Love is a state of being.

Tears of joy are like the summer rain drops pierced by sunbeams.

My family, frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn’t raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead.

That’s what I do this for, to secure my family’s future. I don’t care about anything else. I’m able to spoil people, and that’s the best thing.

The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.

Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

Fear is the mother of morality.

He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.

I joyfully hasten to meet death. If it come before I have had opportunity to develop all my artistic faculties, it will come, my hard fate notwithstanding, too soon, and I should probably wish it later – yet even then I shall be happy, for will it not deliver me from a state of endless suffering?

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

When I’m around the kids I feel like I act the most grown-up just because you’re supposed to. And I say things, like every other day, that remind me of my own parents.

We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.

The kids are a big part of my schedule.

If someone lies, well, you had a choice to trust that person or not. I think the way my father raised me, well, he trusted everybody. And that worked for him.

There are trees of a thousand sorts, and all have their several fruits; and I feel the most unhappy man in the world not to know them, for I am well assured that they are all valuable. I bring home specimens of them, and also of the land.

The second time around, I’ll understand that, as a husband, my wife doesn’t care about my opinions. I just need to tell her the things that will continue to help me stack the brownie points.

Many Communist government officials have a rigid, dictatorial power, but they live in constant suspicion and fear of anything that might undermine the power they have.

I like to write about love and love lost because I feel like there are so many different subcategories of emotions that you can possibly delve into.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

My problem was my inability to spend much time at home. I thought my family was secure, so I went running around everyplace else. I guess I had more of an effect on other people’s kids than I did my own.

I live in Puerto Rico, my family lives in Puerto Rico, my friends. What happens in Puerto Rico matters to me.

My experiences in life are getting bigger and better. The more stuff I do, the more stuff I talk about – having kids, traveling, going through relationship problems, dealing with things in my own family. All that stuff builds character.

Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.

Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.

I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

I would say the most satisfying thing actually is watching my three children each pick up on their own interests and work many more hours per week than most people that have jobs at trying to intelligently give away that money in fields that they particularly care about.

No matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it.

Friends are thieves of time.

To love someone means to see him as God intended him.

Human beings are the only animals of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.

When Nirvana became popular, you could very easily slip and get lost during that storm. I fortunately had really heavy anchors – old friends, family.

Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I’d listen to Italian music.

I’m not ashamed to say I fear something.

I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman.

It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal.

A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.

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

Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.

My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero.

I know when I grew up, it was, if it was daylight outside, get outside. Well, now, with the technological age of computers and everything, everyone’s inside virtually going everywhere they want to go, virtually having relationships, virtually traveling across the neighborhood, virtually going to that island.

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.

Disagreement is something normal.

When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one – it’s the first blow in a suicidal movement. I see the neglect in cities around the country, in poor white children in West Virginia and Virginia and Kentucky – in the big cities, too, for that matter.

Many people tell me that they don ‚t know what to feel when they finish one of my books because the story was dark, or complicated, or strange. But while they were reading it, they were inside my world and they were happy. That’s good.

Never injure a friend, even in jest.

I want someone who can trust that my big hands are going to take care of them.

I have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they keep me young.