Archives - August 2010

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good
writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't
see any.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but
when there is nothing left to take away.

I’d rather live with a good question than a bad answer.

No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it.
We need to see the world anew.

There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite
passion of life.

Choices in life are rarely pure, but to understand the middle
ground it is helpful to imagine the extremes.

Things do not change; we change.

It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever
final.

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three
decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded
good.

Consider every mistake you do make as an asset.

If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd
still be eating frozen radio dinners.

When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be
a subject of interest.

The very things that held you down are going to carry you up.

Underpromise; overdeliver.

It's the soul's duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must
abandon itself to its master passion.

Nice guys finish last, but we get to sleep in.

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an
unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new
dream.

We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry or
because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many
kindnesses, because of luck... But part of it has got to be
forgiveness and gratefulness.

To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the
biggest mistake of all.

Grasp the subject, the words will follow.

A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense
of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on
oneself.

Solitude: sweet absence of faces.

Trees like to have kids climb on them, but trees are much bigger
than we are, and much more forgiving.

With age come the inner, the higher life. Who would be forever
young, to dwell always in externals?

Maps encourage boldness. They're like cryptic love letters. They
make anything seem possible.

The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his
goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is
dedication.

There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old
days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss.
There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today
cannot touch.

Facing a mirror you see merely your own countenance; facing your
child you finally understand how everyone else has seen you.

Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more
quickly than waiting for one big one to come along.