HAPPINESS & betterment

Maybe [her] life would have lacked something subtle but essential without her in it: a certain richness, a certain depth.

You shouldn't only be nice to nice people

The only person you should compare yourself to is the person that you were yesterday.

So much to do. So much to learn. So much I don't know about my own life.

Have faith in yourself, but also have faith in faith.

It would be nice to help them avoid the typical discouragements. I'd tell them to hit pause, think long and hart about how they want to spend their time, wand with whom they want to spend it for the next forty years. I'd tell men and women in their midtwenties to not settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. Even if you don't know what that means, seek it. If you're following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you've ever felt.

When it came rolling in, the money affected us all. Not much, and not for long, because none of us was ever driven by money. But that's the nature of money. Whether you have it or not, whether you want it or not, whether you like it or not, it will try to define your days. Our take as human beings is not to let it.

You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you.

Meaningless pleasure is worthless.

It was us against the world, and we felt damned sorry for the world.

This, I decided, this is what sports are, what they can do. Like books, sports give people a sense of having lived other lives, of taking part in other people's victories. And defeats. When sports are at their best, the spirit of the fan merges with the spirit of the athlete, and in that convergence, in that transference, is the oneness that the mystics talk about

No matter the sport - no matter the human endeavor, really - total effort will win people's hearts.

A feeling came over me, unlike anything I'd ever experienced. I felt spent, but proud. I felt drained, but exhilarated. I felt everything I ever hoped to feel after a day's work. I felt like an artist, a creator.

I wanted what everyone wants. To be me, full-time.

"All the boys back home are going to business school," she said, "and then they all plan to become bankers." She rolled her eyes, adding: "Everyone does the same thing - so boring." "Boredom scares me," I said.