Archives - May 2003

To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart --- and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love.

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.

All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest --- never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership.

If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.

If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.

If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.

My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that 'achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.'

A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.

Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music --- the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success --- but only if you persist.

The first duty of a human being is to assume the right relationship to society --- more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.

If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.

If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.

Some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.

You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get --- only what you are expecting to give --- which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving.

Live all you can --- it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.

And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free, and I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me and I'll proudly stand next to him to defend her still today, 'cause there ain't no doubt I love this land, God bless the U.S.A.

There are admirable potentialities in every human being. Believe in your strength and your youth. Learn to repeat endlessly to yourself, 'It all depends on me.'

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one.

Bringing up a family should be an adventure, not an anxious discipline in which everybody is constantly graded for performance.

A woman is like a tea bag --- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.