Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

With my childhood, it’s a wonder I’m not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

It occurred to me that at one point it was like I had two diseases – one was Alzheimer’s, and the other was knowing I had Alzheimer’s.

I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.

I guess maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel.

A merry heart doeth good like medicine.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Anger is like a storm rising up from the bottom of your consciousness. When you feel it coming, turn your focus to your breath.

The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.

The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.

While there’s life, there’s hope.

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.

Even the securest financial plan and the finest health coverage aren’t enough to hold us steady when the challenges come… We need something more, something deeper and unshakeable, something that will see us through life’s hard times.

My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.

Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.

What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.

Physical comforts cannot subdue mental suffering, and if we look closely, we can see that those who have many possessions are not necessarily happy. In fact, being wealthy often brings even more anxiety.

Meditation is a great way to keep my body well-centered while juggling shooting schedules and recording sessions.

What can everyone do? Praise and blame. This is human virtue, this is human madness.

What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

It is important to remember yourself.

Wealth is well known to be a great comforter.

Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.

We can fear things into existence. Fear looks into the future and imagines the worst that can happen.

When we give ourselves the chance to let go of all our tension, the body’s natural capacity to heal itself can begin to work.

Anyone can have a good day, but you have to be able to perform on a bad day.

Give yourself more opportunities for privacy, when you are not bombarded with duties and obligations. Privacy is not a rejection of those you love; it is your deserved respite for recharging your batteries.

I’ve often felt depressed; everyone feels depressed.

He was so depressed, he tried to commit suicide by inhaling next to an Armenian.

I’m an idealist without illusions.

Without health life is not life; it is only a state of langour and suffering – an image of death.

Sleep is the best meditation.

I don’t worry about stress. I create it.

I just want to live happily ever after, every now and then.

We have an obligation to help people that cannot help themselves. The mentally retarded, the physically retarded, et cetera.

It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.

The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.

When I was 11 I became very depressed. It had a lot to do with the climate and ecological crisis. I thought everything was just so wrong and nothing was happening and there’s no point in anything.

A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick.

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

The only difference between the sane and the insane is that the sane have the power to lock up the insane.

I have this really high priority on happiness and finding something to be happy about.

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

The darkness, the loop of negative thoughts on repeat, clamours and interferes with the music I hear in my head.

Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not.

I think the most important thing is to keep active and to hope that your mind stays active.

I was a grade B housewife, maybe a B minus. But when I got time to write, I would be unable to finish a sentence. I had anxiety attacks. Partly it was a way of personifying the situation because I couldn’t breathe. I was surrounded by people and by duties. I was a housewife and the children’s mother, and I was judged on how I performed those roles.

There is no way to prosperity, prosperity is the way.

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?

Nobody can ever say that being negative ever helped them at all – not in any way.

We can, for example, be fairly confident that either there will be a world without war or there won’t be a world – at least, a world inhabited by creatures other than bacteria and beetles, with some scattering of others.

My head’s never really quiet. The only time I can get it to turn off is if I watch ‚CSI‘ or ‚Law & Order,‘ where I have to follow the crime. If I can’t turn my head off during that, I know I’ve really got a problem.

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.