The wise man, knowing how to enjoy achieved results without having constantly to replace them with others, finds in them an attachment to life in the hour of difficulty.

Each new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is circular.

When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary. When mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.

Our whole social environment seems to us to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds.

A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being engulfed in doubt.

Man is a moral being, only because he lives in society. Let all social life disappear and morality will disappear with it.

When man discovered the mirror, he began to lose his soul.

When morals are sufficient, law is unnecessary; when morals are insufficient, law is unenforceable.

If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.

To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.

The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own. It can be termed the collective or creative consciousness.

Look well into thyself there is a source which will always spring up if thou wilt always search there.

Eating healthy and keeping hydrated does wonders; it centers my mood and helps me keep a sharp mind.

The missing stairs baffled Clary. What did vampires have against stairs? -Clary, pg.266-

I was influenced growing up by everything from Harlequin romances to Fedor Dostoyevsky and Albert Camus, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and later Lydia Davis, Mary Gaitskill, bell hooks.

I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be.

I don't envisage collectivism. There is no such animal, it is always individualism, sometimes the rest vote and sometimes they do not, and if they do they do and if they do not they do not.

For me it's not a question of whether we should intrude in family life, but how and when.

I think those of us who use language are always trying for this, trying to keep everything from floating away by trying to write about it despite failure.

Transcendent values like trust and integrity literally translate into revenue, profits and prosperity.

Sometimes we are so busy putting everyone else first... we lose sight of who we really are and what we want.