“Sometimes the world delivers the deepest connections when we least expect it — and that‘s why we have to be alive to every moment.”

“And I think that time flows backward and forward, and that once in a rare while — if you are lucky and it is cloudy enough to make you see beyond your preconceptions — you stumble onto a connection that transcends it all.”

“Do we craft our memories, or do our memories craft us?”

“The Danish proverb that warns ‘It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future,‘ was right.”

“There is a particular kind of thinker, one who becomes more entrenched in their single big idea about how the world works even in the face of contrary facts, whose predictions become worse, not better, as they amass information for their mental representation of the world.”

“The precise person you are now is fleeting, just like all the other people you‘ve been.”

“Our greatest strength is the exact opposite of narrow specialization. It is the ability to integrate broadly.”

“Life is too short to bother with the distinction between one figment of the imagination and many.”

“As ever when we unweave a rainbow, it will not become less wonderful.”

“Now I think it‘s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child - What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that‘s the end.”

“Compassion isn‘t just about feeling the pain of other; it‘s about bringing them in toward yourself.”

“It is certainly true that you can‘t judge a book by its cover, nor can you judge a book by its first chapter - even if that chapter is twenty years long.”

“I don‘t regret anything I‘ve ever done in life, any choice that I‘ve made. But I‘m consumed with regret for the things I didn‘t do, the choices I didn‘t make, the things I didn‘t say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to.”

“I don‘t believe that love is meant to be like an explosion. It is not meant to be dramatic, or ravenous, or any of the silly words ascribed to it by writers and musicians. But I do believe that when you know, you know.”

“Culture is the sum total of shared habits and expectations.”

“Your chances of avoiding the nursing home are directly related the number of children you have, and, according to what little research has been done, having at least one daughter seems to be crucial to the amount of help you will receive.”

“Cynicism about America‘s current state of affairs is ultimately a form of surrender; a toxic state of mind that perpetuates the notion that we don‘t have the power to make a difference, that things will never change.”

“One of the most valuable things you can give someone is your time and attention.”