Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

My friends ask me if I want more kids, and I always say yes, I want more; it’s the best thing you can have in your life.

Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

Amour is the one human activity of any importance in which laughter and pleasure preponderate, if ever so slightly, over misery and pain.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

My focus is to forget the pain of life. Forget the pain, mock the pain, reduce it. And laugh.

I don’t think that you can be prescriptive about anything, I mean, life is too complicated. Maybe there are novels where the author has not in the least thought about it in terms of film, which can be turned into good films.

There is the good and the bad, the great and the low, the just and the unjust. I swear to you that all that will never change.

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas.

Conversion is a change of masters. Will we not do as much for our new master, the Lord Jesus, as we did once for our old tyrant lusts?

When you look at the sun during your walking meditation, the mindfulness of the body helps you to see that the sun is in you; without the sun there is no life at all and suddenly you get in touch with the sun in a different way.

The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life and one is as good as the other.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.

Life’s a rollercoaster. You’re up one minute; you’re down one minute. But who doesn’t like rollercoasters?

It may be, it just may be, that life as we know it with its humanity is more unique than many have thought.

I like gaps; all my stories have gaps. It seems this is the way people’s lives present themselves.

I’ve learned that men and women who are living wholehearted lives really allow themselves to soften into joy and happiness. They allow themselves to experience it.

If I’m not in love, if I’m not with a long-term companion, I cannot be happy.

Every step of life shows much caution is required.

The way to know life is to love many things.

If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.

Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

Fight with a happy heart.

Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.

Starting at about, I guess, forever, I’ve always looked forward to getting older. When I was 14, I couldn’t wait to be 16 and get a driver’s license.

What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk.

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

Actor’s life is very long.

Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honors depend upon heaven.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

Life, if well lived, is long enough.

As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?

Whether for life or death, do your own work well.

Paris by night is a nightmare now. It is not a cliche anymore.

What’s the use of happiness? It can’t buy you money.

My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.

A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Happiness is the cessation of suffering.

The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what perseveres.

My belief is that we were put into this world of wonders and beauty with a special ability to appreciate them, in some cases to have the fun of taking a hand in developing them, and also in being able to help other people instead of overreaching them and, through it all, to enjoy life – that is, to be happy.

Our life is made by the death of others.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes that she were not.

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 chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

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.

Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can ‚solve the climate crisis.‘ But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

Death is a fearful thing.