The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser―in case you thought optimism was dead.

There are people who live their whole lives on the default settings, never realizing you can customize.

There are exactly as many special occasions in life as we choose to celebrate.

There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed. If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude.

If you feel you are down on your luck, check the level of your effort.

Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.

I count myself lucky, having long ago won a lottery paid to me in seven sunrises a week for life.

Most of us don't need a psychiatric therapist as much as a friend to be silly with.

The advantage of growing up with siblings is that you become very good at fractions.

If you've never experienced the joy of accomplishing more than you can imagine, plant a garden.

The imagination is a palette of bright colors. You can use it to touch up memories — or you can use it to paint dreams.

Men demand much more than you think, " she would tell her enigmatically. "There's a lot of cooking, a lot of sweeping, a lot of suffering over little things beyond what you think.

Patriotism or Nationalism without reasoning is what I call “Nationalist Fundamentalism”, which is as dangerous as “Religious Fundamentalism”.

Mrs. Winalski owned a candy-apple-red 1965 Mustang GT convertible, and she drove it like she could die at any minute and needed to get five things done before that happened.

Every great genius has an admixture of madness.

It's not for nothing that the Iranians are known as rug merchants. They are.

What I've noticed is that when people win huge and they have those huge, huge successes, sometimes they forget about the actual acting of it, and sometimes it's hard to come down from their perch.

Isana felt her throat tighten. "We failed." Serai lifted her chin and patted Isana's arm firmly. "We have not yet succeeded. There is a difference.

I have always believed that, in a story, if something traumatic or calamitous enough happens to a kid at a formative age, that will make him or her the adult they become.

Most Indians go into education. Their parents just push them into education like parents in Australia push them into sports.

The Atman alone is eternal. Hospitals will tumble down. Railroad givers will all die. This earth will be blown to pieces, suns wiped out. The Atman endures for ever.