The greatest and most important problems in life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown.
We do not write as we want, but as we can.
The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.
A body shouldn't heed what might be. He's got to do with what is.
The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambitions.
We may fail of our happiness, strive we ever so bravely; but we are less likely to fail if we measure with judgment our chances and our capabilities.
I One of the signs of maturity is a healthy respect for reality-a respect that manifests itself in the level of one's aspirations and in the accuracy of one's assessment of the difficulties which separate the facts of today from the bright hopes of tomorrow.
Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.
Nothing you write, if you hope to be any good, will ever come out as you first hoped.
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
Anxiety is that range of distress which attends willing what cannot be willed.
There is a mortal breed most full of futility. In contempt of what is at hand, they strain into the future, hunting impossibilities on the wings of ineffectual hopes.
A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose man enjoyment is winning.
No traveler e'er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road.
The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds.
It is a common observation that those who dwell continually upon their expectations are apt to become oblivious to the requirements of their actual situation.
A hero is a man who does what he can.
Buddha's doctrine: Man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep forever things which are essentially impermanent... this frustration of the desire to possess is the immediate cause of suffering.
The point... is to dwell upon the brightest parts in every prospect, to call off the thoughts when turning upon disagreeable objects, and strive to be pleased with the present circumstances.
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
