Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.
It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.
At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
Right there in that room, listening to the tape Laura gave me, I decided that I wanted something more than what I’d allowed myself to become. Listening to the voices and piano notes fade in and out, I decided that I wanted to be happy. If I had to ...
And so, when the chips are down, I must say, though not without a sense of repugnance, that if you wish to show your belief in democracy, you also have to do so when you are in the minority, convinced both intellectually and, not least, in your inner...
I sit in meditation…and soon all sounds, and all one sees and feels, take on imminence, an immanence, as if the Universe were coming to attention, a Universe of which one is the center, a Universe that is not the same yet not different from oneself...
If you want to teach your children that they are the tools of God, you had better not teach them that they are God's rifles, or we will have to stand firmly opposed to you: your doctrine has no glory, no special rights, no intrinsic and inalienable m...
To defend my fear of sudden change, I chose to believe that life was incremental, that the tiny decisions you make every day determine your fate, that your job is to captain an enormous ship subtly into ever-clearer waters. But that’s not how it wo...
I hope you read this, whoever you are, and imagine that there is a hypothetical person out there who needs your love, has been waiting silently, patiently for it all his life, is flawed and downright ugly at times and yet would have just eaten up any...
When I speak of good hearing, I do not mean listening to others; I mean simply listening to yourself. When I speak of good eyesight, I do not mean looking at others; I mean simply looking at yourself. He who does not look at himself but looks at othe...
The question was whether an ape which was being used to develop a poliomyelitis serum, and for this reason punctured again and again, would ever be able to grasp the meaning of its suffering. Unanimously, the group replied that of course it would not...
Mason: Dad, there's no real magic in the world, right? Dad: What do you mean? Mason: You know, like elves and stuff. People just made that up. Dad: Oh, I don't know. I mean, what makes you think that elves are any more magical than something like a w...
Billy Costigan: When are you gonna take Costello, huh? [animated] Billy Costigan: I mean, what's wrong with taking him on any one of the [yelling] Billy Costigan: million fucking felonies that you've seen him do, or I've seen him do? I mean, I mean, ...
Michael Longo: [showing a picture of his new girlfriend] You think she's good-looking? She's smart, too. She's gonna be a teacher. Tony DeVienazo: Let me see that. Oh, I know this girl. Michael Longo: Yeah? Tony DeVienazo: Yeah... I saw her kissing a...
Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.
To contradict means sometimes to knock at the door to see if anyone is at home.
One minute of patience can mean ten years of peace.
Meanness looks through one eye only, ambition is blind.
When a merchant talks about sheep he means the hide.
I mean, by such flightiness, something that feels unsatisfied at the center of my life — that makes me shaky, fickle, inquisitive, and hungry. I could call it a longing for home and not be far wrong. Or I could call it a longing for whatever supers...
